The government Treasury supports the initiatives for dematerialization of the flows of paper documents of the accounting and financial chain to go towards "less from paper". In this step, the Directorate-General for the public Accounting engaged mid-2004, after several months of co-operation with the principal partners (MFA, ADF?), an action plan to encourage the dematerialization in the local public sector in connection with the Helios program, the future application of accounting and financial management of the local authorities and local public institutions. To this end, a national dematerialization Pole was set up to implement this action plan. It is attached to the Helios program. The major objective is to organize a coherent and concerted dematerialization of the major paper document flows which transit each year between the three actors of the accounting and financial chain of the local authorities and public institutions: the authorising officers, the accountants of the Treasury, the regional Courts of Auditors. This step resulted in the signature on 7 December 2004 of the partnership national dematerialization Charter by the Director General for the public accounting, 11 national associations of elected representatives (MFA, ADF, ARF, AMGVF, AMRF, ACUF, ADCF, FHF and both conferences of hospital, FOHLM directors), 6 central state administrations (DGCP, DGCL, ADAE, DHOS, DGUHC, DGAS) and the Court of Auditors and the regional Courts Auditors.

Main results, benefits and impacts

Profits are made up materially by the saving of 50 million paper sheets for 2006, which represents an amount evaluated at EUR 2.7 million. From a ecological point of view, the action exerted by the partners makes it possible to save the equivalent of 14 hectares of forest, i.e. 6200 trees.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

The dematerialization action is feasible on the national network by respecting the following principles, stated by the dematerialization Charter signed on 7 December 2004: - the local authorities voluntary services - partnership between the various actors - respect of the competences of each one