AGENCIES · 18 MEASURES ·

State agencies and operators: audit of 18 measures

separates money that flows through an operator from administrative overhead that can genuinely disappear.

The rule that changes everything

A budget administered is not a saving available. If an agency distributes €1bn of aid and the aid survives the agency's abolition, that €1bn remains public expenditure. Only overhead, duplication or missions genuinely ended may become savings.

The Senate inquiry provides a useful screen: about €2.7bn of support-function cost on the analysed perimeter and roughly €540m from a 20% reduction, itself described as highly ambitious. This benchmark does not replace the Delta-Sierra audit; it prevents funding flows from being confused with administration costs.

Senate perimeter1,153national public bodies

Operator funding€77.0bn≠ overhead

Support functions€2.7bnreference screen

Deduplication96 linksbefore consolidation

Four current corrections integrated

CSA → Arcom. CSA ceased to exist in 2022. Measure 3.14 remains historically traceable, but its current audit now concerns Arcom, with €50.52m in the 2026 draft budget and 378 FTEs.

France Télévisions. The 2026 Finance Act opens €2,425.577m; any privatisation proceeds will always be separated from recurring annual savings.

Radio France. The 2026 reference is €648.03m; 30–45% mechanically equals about €194.4–291.6m, but feasibility depends on the public service retained.

Press. 2026 direct aid is €178.29m and tax expenditure €65m. They are now handled in two separate fiscal columns.

The eighteen measures, separated by financial nature

Measure	Plan effect / type	Current reference	Public consolidation	Simulator treatment
3.01 Category A: operating-cost audit of the 552 entities retained	Audit and control Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate's 2025 perimeter covers 1,153 national public bodies, including 426 budget operators. Operators receive €77.0bn in public funding, but this includes grants, transfers and earmarked taxes and therefore is not an overhead figure.	Keep the Plan's 552 retained entities as a working perimeter, then audit payroll, property, procurement, communications, IT, governance and intervention spending separately. Never apply a savings rate to all funds administered.	No automatic aggregate saving. Only itemised, deduplicated overhead reductions may enter the model.
3.02 Category A: cap executive compensation	Targeted payroll saving Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate report qualifies the idea of a general agency pay premium: the average monthly gross pay of the operator executives' 'top 10' was €7,986.58 in 2023 versus €16,799 in ministries, although a few operators exceed their relevant ministry benchmarks.	Identify operator by operator the remuneration above the chosen cap and calculate savings only on pay actually reduced to that cap. Do not apply a blanket cut to all executives.	Direct saving only for verified individual excess above the cap; deduplicate against measures 1.15 and 1.20.
3.03 Category A: interministerial pooling of support functions	Targeted budget saving Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate estimates operator support functions at about €2.7bn in 2024 on its perimeter excluding universities and research centres. A 20% cut, described as highly ambitious, gives a reference screen of about €540m.	Use €540m as a parliamentary control benchmark, then rebuild savings operator by operator. Remove gains already captured by merger, abolition, digitisation or non-replacement.	May enter the budget only after entity-level allocation and overlap removal.
3.04 Category A: systematic deployment of artificial intelligence	Productivity gain Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate report records 402,489 FTEs under operator employment ceilings and 77,058 outside them. This is a transformation perimeter, not an automatic AI saving.	Measure time released task by task. Convert it into a budget saving only when procurement, recruitment or a post is actually avoided, reduced or left unfilled.	Separate productivity module until fiscal realisation; mandatory deduplication against 2.07, 2.09, 2.13 and the AI package.
3.05 Category B: merge 35 operator clusters	Restructuring €2.3–4.1bn per year	The Senate notes that operator mergers and abolitions from 2015 to 2019 produced only a 0.8% fall in jobs at constant scope. A legal merger therefore does not translate into proportional savings.	Review all 35 clusters individually: governance removed, pooled support, property, IT, pay-harmonisation and transition costs. The €2.3–4.1bn range remains a historical target to consolidate cluster by cluster.	Enter only each merger's net gain after transition costs and deduplication against 3.03/3.04/2.09.
3.06 Category C: reintegrate entities whose autonomy is not justified	Reintegration Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate report recommends several reinternalisations but stresses that the missions continue. Reintegration changes the administrative vehicle; it does not mechanically remove intervention appropriations.	Value only legal-entity, governance, duplicate oversight, support and property costs avoided, net of costs transferred back to ministries. The historical Category C potential must be rebuilt entity by entity.	Net restructuring only; transferred mission funding remains public expenditure unless a separate policy decision changes it.
3.07 Category D: abolish ADEME and fund aid directly (net amount)	Abolition / transfer Detailed costing in measure files	ADEME's 2024 main budget recorded €1,029.5m in revenue, of which only €60.6m was own-source revenue. The Senate stresses that retained aid schemes would still cost the public budget and already recommends direct State-to-region transfers for some funds.	Strictly separate retained aid, legacy commitments, transferred expertise and overhead genuinely removed. ADEME's budget is not treated as a saving.	Only net overhead removed, after transfer costs and legacy commitments.
3.08 Category D: abolish the French Biodiversity Office (net amount)	Abolition / transfer Detailed costing in measure files	OFB reports a €623m initial 2024 budget, funded 70–80% by the water agencies; €73.5m is contributed to the eleven national parks. These flows therefore cannot be equated with OFB overhead.	Separate environmental enforcement, expertise, biodiversity, parks, grants and support functions. Any transferred mission keeps its cost in the receiving body or service.	Net overhead saving only; transfers to parks and retained missions excluded from savings.
3.09 Category D: abolish AFITF (net amount)	Reinternalisation Detailed costing in measure files	For 2026, AFIT France earmarked revenue and appropriations are estimated at about €3.75bn. Yet the Senate describes a structure with four permanent staff relying entirely on central government and recommends reinternalisation.	The €3.75bn funds infrastructure and does not disappear with the legal entity. Value only governance, accounting, own overhead and budget simplification net of costs taken back by the State.	Reinternalisation with limited overhead savings; infrastructure appropriations are never treated as savings.
3.10 Category D: abolish regional health agencies (net amount)	Abolition / transfer Detailed costing in measure files	Budget funding for regional health agencies under programme 155 is set at €627m for 2026. The Senate report recommends transferring their responsibilities to decentralised State services at regional and departmental levels.	Transferring missions means staff, property, systems and health functions must be taken over. Costing must focus on duplicate and governance costs removed, not the entire envelope.	Net gain after transfer costs, deduplicated against 2.01, 2.03, 2.09 and health reforms.
3.11 Category D: abolish regional agriculture directorates (net amount)	Territorial restructuring €60–120m per year	DRAAFs are decentralised State services rather than autonomous aid envelopes. Their reform directly overlaps abolition of the regional administrative tier and staff mobility.	Keep the historical €60–120m range as a prudent estimate to consolidate through payroll, property, transferred functions and the actual number of posts avoided.	No model entry before deduplication against 2.01/2.03/2.09/2.10 and territorial allocation.
3.12 Category D: rationalise DDT, DREAL and water agencies	Territorial rationalisation Detailed costing in measure files	The Senate identifies the water agencies among major intervention operators, with about €1.9bn in intervention charges. It also notes that DDT/DREAL services perform operational tasks for other operators. These funds are not homogeneous overhead.	Split into three sub-perimeters: DDT services, DREAL services and water agencies; isolate missions, fees, grants, enforcement/control and support. Deduplicate against OFB and regional-tier reform.	Enter only by sub-perimeter, net of transferred missions and flows.
3.13 Category D: abolish 316 marginal consultative committees	Operating saving €120–240m per year	The 2025 Senate report counts 317 consultative bodies on its perimeter. It estimates their real total cost closer to €50m than the €30.9m documented for 2023, and puts a 20% reduction at about €10m.	The historical 316-body perimeter and €120–240m target must be reconciled with the Senate definition before consolidation. Build a committee-by-committee register and aggregate remuneration, secretariat, travel and staff time actually avoided.	Enter only documented annual costs of bodies actually abolished; staff-time gains remain separate until expenditure falls.
3.14 Category D: abolish the audiovisual council and regulatory overlaps	Regulator reform €85m per year	The CSA has not existed since 1 January 2022: it merged with Hadopi to form Arcom. The 2026 draft budget provides €50.52m for the Arcom action and an employment ceiling of 378 FTEs.	Keep the historical wording in the Plan table, but audit the measure against today's Arcom. The €85m target cannot simply be mapped onto a 2026 €50.52m envelope; missions to abolish, transfer or pool must be specified.	No saving above net costs genuinely removed; transferred-mission costs deducted.
3.15 Break up France Télévisions and privatise by asset	Public-media reform €2.6bn per year	The 2026 Finance Act opens €2,425.577m for France Télévisions. This envelope is a reference bound: privatisation would also create transition costs and potentially one-off sale proceeds.	Separate the annual grant reduction, any retained public-service obligations, social/contractual commitments and sale proceeds. Sale proceeds are one-off and must never be added to annual savings.	Recurring saving = net reduction in public funding; disposals go to a separate one-off account.
3.16 Deep rationalisation of Radio France by 30–45 percent	Public-media reform €200–300m per year	The 2026 Finance Act opens €648.033908m for Radio France. A mechanical 30–45% reduction equals roughly €194.4–291.6m, close to the Plan's historical range, without prejudging operational feasibility.	Turn the percentage into an operational programme covering stations, transmission, property, production, digital, staff, retained missions and timing. Costing must be consolidated against an explicit public-service scenario.	Net grant reduction only after transition costs; deduplicate against any wider public-media reform.
3.17 Abolish all public support to the press	Direct aid / tax expenditure €320m per year	For 2026, direct budget support to the written press is set at €178.29m. The Senate adds €65m in tax expenditure, including €58m for the super-reduced VAT rate. These two components have different fiscal natures.	Replace the €320m shortcut with a full inventory of direct aid, tax expenditure and any other schemes. Removing tax expenditure is a potential revenue increase, not a spending cut, and must be modelled separately.	€178.29m theoretical maximum on direct aid before exceptions; €65m in the tax-expenditure module, deduplicated against 6.11.
3.18 Publish an exhaustive count of national public bodies in the Official Journal	Transparency / registry Structural effect	The Senate uses a perimeter of 1,153 national public bodies, excluding basic social-security schemes and other bodies governed by the Social Security Code. This count must be dated and versioned rather than treated as permanent.	Create a versioned public register: identifier, legal status, supervising ministry, mission, staffing, funding, creation, merger, abolition and last verification date. Every perimeter change must be traceable.	No direct budget gain; this is control infrastructure for scope and double counting.

The Plan dossiers remain the editorial source

This audit layer does not replace the historical dossiers; it adds a current, machine-readable control layer. The French source dossiers remain linked from the Delta-Sierra reform portal and retain their documentary role.

Machine-readable data

JSON · CSV · Baseline JSON · Deduplication