Inaugurated in 2015, supposed to bear the history and memory of slavery, the ACTe memorial is in complete disarray. According to a report from the regional audit chamber, the permanent exhibition at the Pointe-à-Pitre site (Guadeloupe) was closed nearly 40% of the time, between 2019 and 2022. Behind, the magistrates point to a “governance problem ”, with a deficient board of directors, “disingenuous” accounts and financial management involving “major financial risks, litigation and fraud”. Added to this are personnel management problems, all of which are linked since this Memorial does not have any economic and social council. “The crisis is as much social as institutional,” they continue.
As of 2021, personal conflicts have hampered the operation of the place. The general manager was suspended, then fired, then reinstated. Since the health crisis, 12 then 11 agents on permanent contracts have regularly exercised their right of withdrawal, highlighting an absence of safety protocol during work and health protocol. Due to a lack of sufficient staff, the memorial had to close in March and November 2021. It then initiated layoff procedures in 2022, which were contested. The agents did not return to work, but continued to be paid. “The court estimates the salaries paid to these agents at 605,000 euros, in the absence of service”, can be read in the report “the Memorial would nevertheless be justified in no longer paying them, and obtaining reimbursement of overpayments”.
In this vagueness, the court denounces interference by the Region, which ignores “the independence of the establishment”. For example, the report notes the organization by the local authority of an event around the Route du Rhum, without any agreement having been signed. With an investment of 76 million euros, the memorial was designed to be a center for exhibitions and debates, with spaces linked to genealogy and a 300-seat auditorium. At the time of the inauguration, the region and the city expected 300,000 visitors per year to this large, spectacular building located on a former sugar refinery. However, the public establishment speaks of 42,887 visitors for the first nine months of 2022. If attendance for the year 2023 should be better, it will not live up to initial expectations – especially since no scientific advice has not been put in place.
“The memorial does not meet the ambitions of its initial project to make Guadeloupe the world capital of research on the slave trade and slavery,” conclude the magistrates of the Regional Chamber, who are calling for a serious overhaul of the site and its governance.