Catholic Education Management Organization

The Catholic Education Management Organization, OGEC ("Organisme de Gestion de l’Enseignement Catholique") is a non-profit association (French Act of 1901) created by the Catholic Education Board to serve an educational institution by providing it with legal status and moral personality.

There are 5,200 OGECs in France, grouping about 8,000 schools and institutions.

The OGEC ensures financial and real estate management for the school. It employs and remunerates the personnel under private law.

Private education covers a wide range of specific features; a suitable knowledge is required for perfect technical control of the mission, either of chartered accounting or statutory auditing nature.

The F. Lenoir et Associés Office, part of the Avvens group, has worked with OGECs for many years either as chartered accountant or statutory auditor throughout France.

Account presentation must be compliant with the accounting nomenclature of private education under contract. Deadlines are important as the schools or institutions should send, within 3 months of the end of the financial year, the profit and loss accounts for the past financial year to the Paymaster General.

Our engagements mainly address the following areas:

• Participating in the drafting of annual accounts,
• Assisting the administrative and financial departments in the forecast operating and investment budgets,
• Checking the allocation rules determined for analytical accounting monitoring,
• Attending Board of Directors’ Meetings and General Meetings.

The OGECs receiving more than €153,000 in annual public subsidies or exceeding certain thresholds must appoint an auditor. Crowe Avvens can assist in:

• Certifying and auditing annual accounts
• Ensuring the quality of the internal controls on issues specific to OGECs, notably:
  • In the monitoring of family contributions (invoicing modalities, compliance with financial agreements, comprehensiveness of the products),
  • In the salary and social security charges accounting and in the monitoring of collective bargaining agreement matters and work legislation requirements,
  • In the control of government contribution accounting and of the subsidies either received or to be received (follow-up of lump sums for day pupils (“forfaits externats”)paid by the government and of those paid by the "Départements" and/or the Region, as well as European Community subsidies…)
  • In real estate management (according to the existing contractual links between non-profit owner corporations and the OGECs: gratuitous occupancy, building lease, lease agreements…)
  • In the monitoring of related activities (short school trips, travel…)
  • In the monitoring of funds received with the apprenticeship tax
  • For verification of the operating and investment accounts carried out for the granting of subsidies, conducted in the scope of diligences directly linked with the mission
  • For Board of Directors’ Meetings adopting the annual accounts as well as General Meetings approving said accounts
  • For certificates on UFA accounts ("Unité de Formation par Apprentissage", apprenticeship training unit)

To learn more about our firm, services and teams in Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Paris, contact us.