Le Contrôle des finances en mutation: Réflexions sur les défis actuels de la haute surveillance de l’administration

Abstract

In recent decades, several developments have contributed to a change in the mandate of the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO). The criterion of profitability was added to Article 5 of the Federal Audit Office Act (FAOA) in 1995. More recently, the report of the Federal Assembly’s Finance Committees and Control Committees on the IT project INSIEME recommended strengthening the powers of the SFAO, particularly in terms of announcing serious shortcomings found and the failure to implement its recommendations. These developments, as well as others internationally, have had implications for the SFAO’s mission, its tasks and the performance of its supervision for Parliament and the Federal Council. They include the introduction of a tool for monitoring recommendations in the administrative units, an increase in the resources allocated to the supervision of key IT projects and the publication of reports that could be requested in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. Another development is that the SFAO now makes more systematic use of the tools available, to inform the federal departments about the most significant shortcomings and has also expanded its mandate range. This article presents recent developments that both constitute opportunities and carry risks for the Confederation’s financial supervisory body. It shows how the SFAO must keep a balance between supervising and contributing to a political-administrative system that is increasingly being questioned.