The Court of Audit is a quasi-judicial body

Quasi-judicial body

A quasi-judicial body is an individual or organization which has powers resembling those of a court of law or judge and is able to remedy a situation or impose legal penalties on a person or organization.-Powers:...

 of the French government

Government of France

The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...

 charged with conducting financial and legislative audit

Audit

The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...

s of most public institutions and some private institutions, including the central Government, national public corporations

Government-owned corporation

A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...

, social security

Social Security in France

Social Security in France is divided into four branches:*illness;*old age;*family;*recovery.From an institutional point of view, French social security is made up of diverse organismes collectively referred to as La Sécu, an abbreviation of Sécurité Sociale.- History of social protection:From the...

 agencies (since 1950), and public services

Public services

Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...

 (since 1976). The Court is essentially a cross between a court of exchequer

Court of Exchequer

Court of Exchequer may refer to:*Exchequer of Pleas, an ancient English court, that ceased to exist independently in the late nineteenth century...

, comptroller general's office, and auditor general

Auditor General

- Auditor General of National Audit Offices :*Auditor General of the Australian National Audit Office*Auditor General of Canada*Auditor General of China*Auditor General of Pakistan*Auditor General for Scotland*Auditor-General...

's office in common-law countries.

The Court's three duties are to conduct financial audits of accounts, conduct good governance

Good governance

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...

 audits, and provide information and advice to the French Parliament

Parliament of France

The French Parliament is the bicameral legislature of the French Republic, consisting of the Senate and the National Assembly . Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at a separate location in Paris: the Palais du Luxembourg for the Senate, the Palais Bourbon for the National Assembly.Each...

 and Administration. The Court verifies the good form of accounting and the proper handling of public money. Established in 1807, the Court is the successor to the Paris Court of Accounts

Chambre des comptes

Under the French monarchy, the Courts of Accounts were sovereign courts specialising in financial affairs. The Court of Accounts in Paris was the oldest and the forerunner of today's French Court of Audit...

 under the monarchy, or Ancien Régime, and had inherent jurisdiction

Inherent jurisdiction

Inherent jurisdiction is a doctrine of the English common law that a superior court has the jurisdiction to hear any matter that comes before it, unless a statute or rule limits that authority or grants exclusive jurisdiction to some other court or tribunal...

 to audit all public accounting officials and agencies. The Court of Audit is independent from the legislative

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

 and executive

Executive (government)

Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...

 branches of Government. However, the 1946 and 1958 French constitutions made it the Court's duty to assist the Cabinet and Parliament in regulating government spending.

Composition

The Chief Baron (premier président) of the Court of Audit is appointed by Order-in-Council of the Cabinet. Once appointed, Barons of the Court, Chief or puisne, have security of tenure. The Court has its own Office of the Prosecutor - with a Chief Prosecutor, Chief Deputy Prosecutor, and two deputy prosecutors - that represents the Government before the Court. The Court is split into seven divisions, each with nearly 30 Barons ordinary and Baron-reporters and headed by a Presiding Baron. Jurisdiction is split between the seven divisions generally by subject matter, e.g., finance, health and social security, and so forth. The Court's Chief Baron is Didier Migaud who took over in 2010 following the death of the late Philippe Séguin

Philippe Séguin

Philippe Séguin was a French political figure who was President of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1997 and President of the Cour des Comptes of France from 2004 to 2010....

. Other judicial officers are generally split into three groups by rank:

• puisne Barons (conseillers-maîtres)
  • consider, hear, and adjudicate cases in panels
• deputy Barons (conseillers référendaires)
  • divided into 2 classes; handle case management
• Auditor-Masters
  Master (judiciary)
  A Master is judicial officer found in the courts of England and in numerous other jurisdictions based on the common law tradition. A master's jurisdiction is generally confined to civil proceedings and is a subset of that of a judge. Masters are typically involved in hearing motions, case...
  
   (auditeurs)
  • divided into 2 classes; preside over hearings, collect evidence, audit, and report

All judicial officers are graduates from the National Administration Academy (École nationale d'Administration) or recruited from the Office of the Comptroller-General (inspection générale des Finances).

Original jurisdiction

The French Court of Audit has original jurisdiction to audit and adjudicate accounts made by public, management, and government accountants. The Court also has authority to audit persons acting but not certified as a public accountant. If an account is found to be correct, then the Court issues a quietus to discharge the accountant. If, however, the account is found to be in error, then a debet order is issued against the defaulter. Either order is subject to appeal in the Court or final appeal at the French Supreme Court.

Audits focus on:

• Government accounting, budgets, and funds
• Public corporations
• National and public institutions, social security organizations, subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries of public corporations
• Government-funded organizations
• Publicly-funded organizations

Appellate jurisdiction

A decision from a lower audit court may be appealed at the main Court of Audit within two months of its being handed down. Afterwards, if the parties are still not satisfied, the Council of State will hear the case on final appeal.

The French Court of Audit puts together its auditing program entirely independently and is vested with very broad powers of review and examination. It publishes and submits an annual audit report to the French President and to Parliament. The report provides a detailed account of the government's poor, or possibly fraudulent, practices and criticizes poor governance and use of public funds. The Court also audits authorizing officers (ordonnateurs) and their expenditures.

Audit procedure

In addition to reporting poor practices, the Court judges the accounting of public financial and budgetary officials, collection agencies, or treasury departments, e.g., treasurers, paymasters-general, tax collectors, certified public accountants, and can fine them for late reporting. In such cases, the Court fines public accounting officials for the exact amount of any sum of money that, due to an error on their part, they have unduly paid or failed to recover on behalf of the State. A debet (débet), from Latin "he owes" and not limited in amount, is entered against a defaulting person, and the defaulter becomes the State's debtor. Public and government accountants must therefore have performance liability insurance. Often, however, the Ministry of Finance alleviates a defaulter by granting an abatement of his arrears as the full amount is likely too much to ever pay out of pocket. If an account is audited and found not to be in default, then the Court issues a quietus (arrêt de quitus or arrêt de décharge) acquitting and discharging the official and settling the account.

Regional audit courts

The Court of Audit of France stands above and heads 27 regional inferior financial courts referred to in French as Chambres régionales des comptes, or regional audit courts. The Court of Audit acts as the administrative head and court of appeal for the financial stream, hearing appeals from regional courts and issuing rule promulgation orders and administrative directives. Regional audit courts were established in 1982 to help unburden the main Court of Audit of its heavy caseload. Since their creation, they have original jurisdiction for most local, county, and regional accounting matters in continental France and its overseas dependancies. This means they audit accounts as well as public institutions to check for fraud, imbezzlement, or misappropriation. In case of budgetary discrepancies, the Court can ask the local prefect to intervene and oversee the handling of public funds until budget problems have been corrected.

Each court is divided into divisions and includes a Baron-in-Charge - who is also either a puisne or deputy baron at the main Court of Audit - and two associate barons. Barons have security of tenure and some also serve as Commissioners-in-Council with prosecutorial duties under the Office of the Prosecutor at the Court of Audit of France. The regional courts focus on:

• budgetary audits and assessment of local public institutions' budget use and management
• audits of institutions and agencies in a given regional jurisdiction, namely: public institutions (schools, public housing, hospitals) or groups funded or aided by local governments or public institutions (unions or trade associations)
• efficiency evaluations of account management

Accounts found to be in error are entered into debet and accounts in default or fictitious are referred to the local prefect.

Accounts for towns of fewer than 3,500 inhabitants and receipts totalling less than 750,000 euros are automatically referred to the local county or regional treasurer. A regional audit court's ruling may be appealed in the same court or to the Court of Audit of France.

See also

• INTOSAI
• INCOSAI
• EUROSAI
• Council of State (France)

External links

• Official website