Today's Date:

The Cour des Comptes, formed in 1807, is a judicial authority in financial matters and is independent of both legislature and executive.

Today, its role is to apply mandatory financial verification to several categories of institution, such as central government, national public corporations, social security bodies (since 1950) and public services (since 1976).

The Senior Judge of the Cour des Comptes, who is appointed by decree issued by the Council of Ministers, cannot be recalled, as is in fact the case for all judges sitting in the court of auditors. The court is assisted by a prosecutor's department headed by a public prosecutor, which acts as an intermediary between court and government.

The organizational structure comprises seven judicial bodies (the various divisions of the court), each of which has approximately thirty judges and rapporteurs: the distribution of powers among the seven divisions generally follows sectoral lines (for example, finance, health and social security, and so on).

The Cour des Comptes itself defines its audit programme entirely independently. It is also vested with very broad powers of investigation.

The missions carried out by the Cour des Comptes fall currently into three categories: verification of the compliance of accounts, verification of management, and provision of assistance to Parliament and the government.

It carries out checks on the correctness of public accounts. It analyzes the overall accounting balance and has as its main task, on the basis of an examination of the accounts and supporting documentation, that of verifying that revenue has been collected and payments made in compliance with accounting rules.

In carrying out its management audits, the Cour also verifies that public funds have been correctly applied. Such checks may be carried out in connection with an evaluation of the financial statements submitted by accountants or by direct analysis of the management of the officers responsible for the disposition of funds.

This form of verification has gradually been extended to the accounts of social security bodies, followed by those of public services. The Cour also makes known its views on the competence with which public services are administered.

It also has powers to verify proper application of public grants and subsidies. In 1991, this mission was extended to cover organizations appealing for charitable donations from the general public.

Finally, the Cour des Comptes cooperates with the government, and more particularly with Parliament, in verifying the performance of the budget, doing so in a number of ways.

Firstly, the Senior Judge may lay the court's findings and comments before the relevant parliamentary committees (finance committees and special commissions of enquiry).

In addition, the committees of both houses may also entrust the court with specific enquiries into the management of bodies over which it has a power of inspection.

Lastly, the Cour des Comptes regularly publishes a number of reports: an Annual Report and special reports, which are made public; a report on the performance of the budget laws for the previous year, which is laid before Parliament; and, since 1995, a report on all audited social security bodies.

An average of nearly 700 reports are produced by the Cour des Comptes each year.

For further information: