The Comptroller General of the State (IGAE) is a senior official of the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The comptroller directs the Office of the Comptroller General of the State Administration, which is an internal supervisory agency with the task of supervising the state public administration and of managing the public accounts. The Comptroller General is appointed by the

Monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

with the advice of the Finance Minister. The Comptroller General reports directly to the Under Secretary of Finance.

Purpose

The Comptroller oversees the IGAE agency, which has two core functions. Its primary function is that of a supervisory agency. It is responsible for verifying – through previous monitoring of legality, continuous financial control, public audits, and financial control of

subsidies A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acce ...

– that the public sector's economic and financial activity complies with the principles of legality,

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

, efficiency and effectiveness. Its second function is to act as the center for the management of public accounts. It is responsible for providing reliable, complete, professional and independent accounting information about public management. In this regard, it is responsible for drafting the public sector's financial accounts according to the guidance set out by the

European System of Accounts The European System of Accounts (ESA) is the system of national accounts and regional accounts used by members of the European Union. It was most recently updated in 2010 (ESA 2010). The ESA 95 is fully consistent with the United Nations System of ...

. The most specific result of this is the determination of

public deficit In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...

, which is essential to the nation's economic life. It calculates the deficit for the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

and each of its sub-sectors.

Organisation

A large number of officials and administrative bodies depend upon the Comptroller General. To carry out its functions, the IGAE agency has delegations known as Comptroller Delegations () in all the

General State Administration The General State Administration () is one of the Public Administrations of Spain. It is the only administration with powers throughout the national territory and it is controlled by the central government. It comprises a: * Central Organizatio ...

departments, including ministerial departments, public agencies and regional and local administrations. In addition, the law specifies that certain government bodies must have integrated delegations:

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(

IGD Immunoglobulin D (IgD) is an antibody isotype that makes up about 1% of proteins in the plasma membranes of immature B-lymphocytes where it is usually co-expressed with another cell surface antibody called IgM. IgD is also produced in a secreted ...

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

( IGSS), the General Secretariat for the Treasury and International Financing, and the Directorate-General for Personnel Costs and Public Pensions. In addition to the bodies mentioned above, the IGAE agency is divided into seven large departments: * The National Audit Office, further divided into five division. * The National Accounting Office, divided into three divisions. * The Deputy Directorate-General for Intervention and Control. * The Deputy Directorate-General for Studies and Coordination. * The Deputy Directorate-General for Organization, Planning and Resource Management. * The Budgetary Computing Office, divided into four divisions. * The National Anti-Fraud Coordination Service. It is also supported by a dedicated technical office.

List of comptrollers general

References

{{authority control Government audit officials Auditing organizations Financial regulatory authorities of Spain Auditing in Spain Government agencies of Spain