The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) is the supreme financial supervisory body of the

Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan ...

. In this capacity, it assists Federal Assembly and the Federal Council.Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO)
/ref> Its independence is guaranteed by the Federal Auditing Act.

Description

SFAO is the supreme financial supervisory body in Switzerland, that is, a court of auditors for the control of public accounts. It assists the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council. Although it is administratively attached to the

Federal Department of Finance The Federal Department of Finance (FDF, , , , ) is one of the seven Ministry (government department), departments of the Swiss federal government. The department is headquartered in Bern and headed by a member of the Federal Council (Switzerlan ...

, it is not hierarchically subordinate to it. It is independent and subject only to the Swiss Constitution and Swiss law. The SFAO's role is to audit the financial management of the federal administration as well as certain semi-state and international organizations. The supervision of the

Swiss National Bank The Swiss National Bank (SNB; ; ; ; ) is the central bank of Switzerland, responsible for the nation's monetary policy and the sole issuer of Swiss franc banknotes. The primary goal of its mandate is to ensure price stability, while taking econ ...

and the

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

are explicitly excluded from the SFAO's mandate. Since 2014, the SFAO has published its audit reports in a broad manner, which is an exception to the practice of other Swiss audit authorities. At the end of 2019, the number of audit and evaluation reports circulated amounted to 378 documents.

History

The body was established in 1877 as the "Control Office" within the Finance Administration. It was renamed "Federal Audit Office" in 1882, when it received an explicit legal basis. The proposal to create a "

Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those ...

" was rejected several times, and the SFAO's status and prerogatives gradually evolved. At first, the SFAO was housed in the

. It moved with it to the ''Bernerhof'' in 1927. It had about ten employees until 1914, before reaching a peak of 45 employees in 1917 in the context of the

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The number of employees then declined and reached a peak with the outbreak of the Second World War. In 2017, the SFAO published a report criticizing the quality of the messages that the government submits to parliament with its draft acts, in particular a lack of impact analyses. As the report was published three days before a vote, the SFAO was criticized for interfering in the campaign and ended up apologizing and acknowledging a poor timing.

Whistleblower

In 2017, after six years of experience, the SFAO set up an online platform for the anonymous exchange of suspected irregularities with employees, suppliers, taxpayers and anyone who wants to improve the efficiency of the administration and combat fraud and corruption. The SFAO is the official

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

's point of entry for the administration. However, federal employees are obliged to comply with Article 22a of the Federal Personnel Act (duty to report, right to report and protection). In 2021, the SFAO received 402 reports, 228 of which were related to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

.Whistleblowing statistics
/ref>

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Federal offices of Switzerland Financial regulatory authorities of Switzerland