French red tape is failing people

FRENCH administration makes people feel "psychologically tired", tense, nervous and helpless, the country's official ombudsman has warned.

The Médiateur de la République, Jean-Paul Delevoye, says he is seeing evidence of a growing rift between the public and French bureaucracy.

He says the current system of administration is not adequately equipped to deal with people's problems and lets vulnerable groups slip through the net.

The médiateur is an independent authority that handles complaints from the public about their relations with red tape and the civil service.

The body received 76,286 complaints last year - up 16% on last year. More than half of these were requests for information on medical issues and healthcare entitlements, where patients said they had not been given enough help through the channels already in place.

Mr Delevoye, who is due to present his annual report to President Nicolas Sarkozy today, told Le Monde: "In the cases I'm asked to deal with I'm seeing a society that is becoming fragmented, where people's desire to live together has been replaced by the notion of every man for himself.

"French administration deals with dossiers, not people. Those who knock on our door feel they have been misunderstood and misguided. They feel they have been cast aside by laws which have become too complicated. They feel poorly defended by the State."

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