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| SPOL2207-1 | Local Accounting
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| Duration : | 15h Th |
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| Credits/ECTS : |
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| Holder(s) : | Alain Coenen |
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| Language : | Langue française |
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| Course contents : | The course is designed as a global approach to the issue of local public finances. As well as dealing with budgeting in the strict sense, it also relates to the following areas:
- local budget,
- budget and accounting for the local community's "satellites": C.P.A.S., state-owned corporations, intercommunal companies, non-profit associations, church property commissioners, etc.
- accounts management,
- debt and its active management,
- several financial analysis tools: ratios and aggregates based on budgeting and general accounting (balance sheet and profit and loss statement)
- the function of the local collector,
- local banks,
- local tax system,
- local financing
- entities with financial burdens |
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| Course objective : | The main course objectives are as follows:
a - to enable students to situate a very specific subject - particularly in the legal and statutory texts - which nevertheless features in the programme of numerous exams giving access to local government;
b - to situate the study of local public finances as part of the broader concepts of administrative law such as the competencies, functioning and control of local institutions;
c - to encourage students to participate, based on what they know about the finances of their own commune, for instance through press articles;
d - to make the most of current affairs to analyse certain problems in relation to the course. For instance, during the last few years:
- the quashing of the Walloon Region's so-called "paix fiscale" circular by the Council of State,
- the quashing of part of the Law of 24 December 1996 by the Court of Arbitration, relating to the establishment and collection of provincial and local taxes,
- the transformation of the "Crédit Communal de Belgique" into a holding type of structure,
- the problem of the tax system applicable to the communes by the Walloon Region, within the framework of its waste policy,
- the structural financial problems the communes have encountered over the past few years and the solutions the higher authorities are endeavouring to find,
- the regionalisation of the organisation of local institutions, including the financial and tax aspects |
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| Prerequisites : | None in particular although an elementary knowledge of the legal functioning of the communes and the remit of their organs would be useful to facilitate the approach to the problems envisaged. |
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| Organization : | A 15-hour course, given during the second semester, on Thursdays from 13:00 to 15:00. |
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| Written notes : | The students will receive :
- the present information sheet,
- the last version of Dexia bank's half-yearly report on
local finances (provinces and communes).
- The course was published under the title "Introduction aux Finances Communales" (Alain Coenen), by the legal publisher La Charte, Bruges, in 2000; it contains a list of the applicable laws, decrees and regulations as well as a
brief bibliography. A second edition is currently in preparation (January 2008). |
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| Assessment : | During the oral exam, students may use any documents they consider useful, including the notes taken during the course. |
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| Contacts : | Contacts: further information on the course can always be provided by the course leader:
- from the local administration of Beyne - Heusay:
- Tel (switchboard) : +32 (0) 4 / 358 69 20
- Tel (direct line) : + 32 (0) 4 / 355 89 14
- Fax : +32 (0) 4 / 358 36 29
- E-mail : alain.coenen@beyne-heusay.be
- private : +32 (0) 4 / 358 41 08 |
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