The Tribunal de Contas da União (''Federal Court of Accounts'', often referred to as TCU) is the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian federal audit office. It is tasked with assisting Congress in its

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

incumbency to exercise external audit over the

Executive Branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems b ...

. Its members, called ministers, are appointed by the

National Congress ''National Congress'' is a term used in the names of various political parties and legislatures . Political parties *Ethiopia: Oromo National Congress *Guyana: People's National Congress (Guyana) *India: Indian National Congress *Iraq: Iraqi Nati ...

and the

President of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

. The TCU employs a highly qualified body of civil servants to prevent, investigate and sanction

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and malpractice of public funds, with national jurisdiction. The Tribunal was created in 1891, although its origins are traced back to the

Royal Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

(''Erário Régio''), established in 1808 by King John VI. It is, therefore, one of the world's earlier institutions charged with national government accountability. Today, the TCU cooperates with the

Comptroller-General of the Union The Comptroller General of the Union ( pt, Controladoria-Geral da União, abbreviated CGU), is a branch of the Brazilian federal government tasked with assisting the president regarding the treasury and public assets and the government's tr ...

(CGU), which centralizes federal executive

internal audit Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach t ...

. The Tribunal's work is scrutinized by the Public Ministry. In 1959 it hosted III INCOSAI, the third triennial convention of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. The work executed by the TCU in 2011 produced savings of 14 billion reais (US$7.44 billion) to the Brazilian taxpayer. For each real spent by the court to avert

and wasteful spending, 10.5 reais were saved.(20/04/2012 15:21) Resultados 2011: TCU gera benefícios de R$ 14 bilhões
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References

External links

* Legislative branch of Brazil Government accounting officials Government agencies established in 1891

Supreme audit institutions {{Brazil-gov-stub