Reporting and monitoring

Report on the Final Central Government Accounts

The report on the final central government accounts is the report referred to in the Constitution Act concerning the management of central government finances and compliance with the budget. The report on the final accounts is submitted to Parliament in the June of the following year for each budget year.

The report contains the final central government accounts together with their appendices. The State Treasury, which operates under the Ministry of Finance, draws up and signs the draft final central government accounts by the end of April of the following budget year.

The report on the final accounts also contains the most significant information on central government finances and the development of performance, especially concerning the social effectiveness, across different branches of the administration. The report also contains the key year-end accounts for the unincorporated state enterprises and off-budget entities. The Government financial controller's function ensures the trueness and fairness of the data contained in the report.

The report on the final central government accounts also includes Government responses to parliamentary budget statements and the Government report on measures taken as a result of objections and proposals in the report by the Parliamentary Finance Committee on the operation of national financial administration and accounting (the Action Report on parliamentary objections to the final accounts).

Audit Committee in Parliament

Parliament supervises national financial administration and the execution of the Budget. To this end, there is an Audit Committee in Parliament, which reports its main supervisory observations to Parliament.

National Audit Office

An independent National Audit Office (NAO) is in charge of auditing national financial administration and Budget execution. The NAO performs annual audits and performance audits and, where necessary, extraordinary audits. The NAO communicates the audit for further action to both the audited agency and the ministry under whose purview the agency operates, and also to the Ministry of Finance. The NAO presents a report on its operations annually to Parliament.

Internal control and inspection

Senior management in government agencies are responsible for internal control to ensure the legitimacy and effectiveness of financial activities, to safeguard the assets held by agencies and to secure correct and appropriate information on financial activities and agency operations in line with management and external steering requirements.

Agency management must also arrange for internal auditing where this is deemed necessary following internal control measures. The purpose of internal auditing is to clarify the regularity and appropriateness of internal control procedures and to conduct any auditing requested by senior management.

CPFA Board

The Board of Chartered Public Finance Auditing (CPFA Board) for general government (central and local government, and parishes) that is appointed for three years at a time by the Government approves the CPFA auditors and auditing corporations and is responsible for steering and supervising the auditing.

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