The Bureaucratic Nightmare that is France

On arrival in France it is not long before you become consumed in the bureaucracy that is embedded in the fabric of life, in a society that demands every transaction and communication is recorded in paper format. Despite having a high level of Internet access and computer literacy the French authorities require citizens to retain a paper copy of every household and personnel transaction they undertake. 

Every office, private, local administrative, regional or central government, maintain manual records in the old manila files, sometimes from floor to ceiling. Visit any office to commence a transaction and immediately, somewhere in the background a small but perfectly formed administrative clerk will start a paper file.

Yes but surely they use computers, you ask? Oh yes they have computers and they will record your details on the PC and will use it to complete any associated documentation. Once entered on the system the very same document will be printed out, one copy for your paper file at home and one for their paper file in the office. A good example is a visit to the insurance brokers where you ask for an amendment of your policy. The agent first proceeds to the racks of paper files and pulls out your file with name emblazoned on the spine. Having checked the contents the agent starts to obtain a quote on the computer for the amended insurance required. Having mutually agreed the policy amendment the agent then prints out the policy in duplicate, both copies are signed and you go away to file your copy at home and another tree is added to our file in the office.

I asked the agent why do you maintain paper files when you have the same documents on the PC and presumably backed up onto a server? " Yes we do have them on computer but the Government legislation requires us to maintain paper copies regardless "

It is very strange that this is the same government which is introducing a Carbon Tax and yet every day in France tons of paper is being used to duplicate the processes recorded on computer networks.

The other day I visited the bank to ask the manager if I could stop the paper statements being sent to my home as I accessed the account on PC regularly and found the statements surplus to requirements. Shock and Horror! But you must retain the paper statements they may be required by the 'Tax de Impot' (Inland Revenue). Yes but I can print some off when they are needed. "NO,NO, you must retain the hard-copy in the special file we gave you".

Yes reader, this is the 21st century but clearly someone has forgotten to tell the French Bureaucrats that computers can be very reliable especially when information is backed up!

Those expats who have lived in France for a few years will no doubt have resigned themselves to the paper chase and have draws full of photocopies of every personal document they have ever owned. Why you may ask? well every time you have to renew an official French document or complete an annual registration you will be asked for hard copîes of everything that you gave them the previous year. Perhaps their filing system doesn,t work? or they imagine that we are all going to change our names each year, move house, get married again or have a sex change.

Sorry, can you tell that the bureaucracy's is starting to annoy me!

In truth I think that France is suffering from the Us and Them politics of central government  versus the local regions with no one having the will or the bravery to take this issue on board. An enormous number of people are employed in national, local and regional government and if you were to attempt to stop the bureaucracy jobs would inevitably be at risk. One might say the savings from a review of  administration can only be good for the economics of the country. In reality any attempt to streamline the administration, especially in this recession, would be met with an outcry from the French unions.

So I am going to have to keep repeating, 'ça c'est la vie' and taking another glass of wine until eventually I no longer care how many trees have been felled on my behalf.

Comments

[lavenderbongo]

So true - Belgium was just the same!

[Chris & Rachael]

unfortunatly its very true, and we too find this one of the frustrations of France.
But, i have to say that I would not trust the French computer systems.
Last week we received a bank statement from credit agricole to say our account was €90 overdrawn, the day after we received a letter stating that we must bring the account up to date within 7 days.
We closed all our accounts with cedit agricole over 18 months ago! When my wife contacted them by telephone they confirmed that all accounts were in fact closed and she had no idea why we had received them.

[Masters Dissertation Help]

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[Martin]

I do share the general frustrations about bureaucracy - for example, when my wife and I needed to pay for a marriage contract to be drawn up by a notaire we turned up with usual supply of credit and debit cards only to be told only cheques will do. Couldn't find cheque book so offered to go get the cash, but he couldn't accept cash either. We ended up having to go the the Tresorerie (some kilometers away), hand the cash over, then take a printed confirmation of payment back to the notaire who could only then release the contract. Frustrating? Yes, but then again this french 'system' also probably contributed to them suffering far less from the economic crisis than other more liberal countries.