Presentation from Parliament’s perspective by Ms Chiara Goretti, Economic Advisor of the Minister of Finance and former acting head of the Parliament, Budget Service Committee, from Italy

1. principally financed by the EU
A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union,
Conference on Relations between
SAIs and Parliaments
of EU Candidate and
Potential Candidate Countries
hosted by the State Audit Institution of Montenegro
Coordination, Technical and Financial Support:
OECD/SIGMA
and the Joint Working Group on Audit Activities (JWGAA)
By Ms Chiara Goretti
Economic Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Italy
18-19 November 2013
© OECD

2. This talk will focus on:
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•
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The actors
The playground
The results
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3. THE ACTORS
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4. The Italian Corte dei Conti (1/2)
“Corte dei Conti exercises preventive control over the legitimacy
of government measures and also ex post auditing of the
administration of the State budget. It participates, in the cases
and ways established by law, in auditing the financial
management of the entities receiving regular budgetary
support from the State. It reports directly to the Houses on
the results of audit performed.
The law guarantees the independence of the Corte dei conti and
its members”.
Art. 100, Italian Constitution (1948)
“Corte dei Conti has jurisdiction in matters of public accounts
and in other matters laid out by law”
Art. 103, Italian Constitution (1948)
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5. The Italian Corte dei Conti (2/2)
Corte dei Conti (CdC) was established in 1862 in the new Italian State,
with the role of safeguarding public finance and guaranteeing the
respect of the jurisdictional system.
The Corte dei Conti pursues these aims exerting two functions:
- The audit function
• Preventive
• Financial audit
- The jurisdictional function
CdC is neither an organ of the Parliament nor of the government (so
called: organ of constitutional relevance). Auxiliary body to the
legislative branch.
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6. The Italian Parliament
• Two Chambers (Senate and Chamber of Deputies), perfect
bicameral. Parliamentary system. Fragmented.
• 14 standing committees, with important role in legislative process.
No Public Account Committee
• CdC has privileged relationship with the Budget Committee (5th
Standing Committe)
The reports of the Court of Auditors on government agencies wich the State regularly subsidises
are referred simultaneously to the committees responsible by subject matter and to the 5th
standing Committee.
Each such committee shall vest one or more Senators with the responsibility of studying the
reports of each government agency or group of agency in order to identify instances which the
committees should investigate.
By June each year, committees shall submit a report to the 5th Standing Committee setting out their
conclusions on aspects relating to the management and actual work of government agencies
falling within their remit.
By September each year, the 5th Standing Committee shall submit a general report to the Senate on
the economic and financial aspects of State-subsidised government agencies and on their
consistency with the Economic Development Plan. This report, to which committee reports shall
be annexed, may also contain draft resolutions relating to the management of such agencies.
(Rule 131, Senate Rule of Procedures)
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7. THE PLAYGROUND
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8. Preventive controls (1/5)
On the legality of the government acts:
• Ex ante control
• On a limited number of acts (general planning
acts of the administration, listed in the law)
Opinion:
• Registered
• Provisory registration,
 Government can go ahead
 send to Parliament, to guarantee accountability of the
government against the legislature
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9. The State Financial Statement (2/5)
The financial statement for the State budget has to be
officially certified by the Corte dei Conti, before being
transmitted by the executive to Parliament
(art 38 of the budget law)
The procedures for the audit on state accounts (so called
“Judgement of Parifica”, equalisation) have a specific
nature, with accurate audits on the regularity of the
budget flows (June t, for year t-1)
• Financial Statement: 15 volumes+14 annexes
• CdC Documents: 4 volumes (more than 500 pages)
• Included EU funds
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10. The audit of other public bodies (3/5)
• As for the external audits the Corte dei Conti carries out forms of
mandatory auditing on more than 95% of the general government
units, for a similar amount of total public expenditure (over 11000
entities)
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local administrations (Regions, provinces and municipalities) and health authorities.
Compliance and regularity audits on the management with reference to the respect of
the balance budget, of the domestic stability pact and with regard to national debt and
to the sustainability;
financial audit on the accounts of bodies subsidised by the State, currently comprising
236 units, 152 belonging to general government, 84 public corporations. The audit
takes into account effectiveness (results), efficiency (time and methods) and
economy (costs). For this purpose the legislator entrusted the CdC with the task of
setting, on a yearly basis, audit programmes and criteria.
• It directly reports to Parliament and to the other elected
assemblies
• The outcomes of the audit are issued also on the Corte dei conti
institutional web site (www.corteconti.it)
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11. Hearings in Parliament (4/5)
Regular hearings of the President of the Court of
Auditors on:
• Economic and Fiscal Plan (April) and its update
(September)
• Budget draft (October)
• Other important economic bill
• Budget legislation (i.e.: Constitutional reform for the
balanced budget)
• Cognitive survey on various issues
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12. The new EU framework (5/5)
• Relevance of high quality statistics for EU fiscal
framework
• Public accounts statistics are based on
administrative data. Reliability of administrative
data are crucial for high quality statistics
• Supreme Audit are more and more involved in
Eurostat consultation at national level, to
guarantee the inclusiveness and reliability of
budget records
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13. THE RESULTS
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14. Audit functions: are they effective? (1/2)
• Massive amount of documents transmitted, thousands of pages
• limited attention from parliamentarians and standing committees
Why?
At the political level: still limited attention to results. Financial statement
examined in the budget committee in no more than 2 hours. Audit
Reports not perceived as instruments to better political decisions.
In CdC, legal culture is dominant: very punctilious reports, often too
lenghty. Weak efficiency and efficacy analyses
General aspect, related to the administrative culture of a country
Different approach to public management, internal and external control,
accountability to results
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15. The accountability triangle?
CdC has an important jurisdictional function; control on legality of acts is
central; the focus is on the bottom side of the triangle
Parliamentary hearings and CdC ceremonies (as “Parifica” for the financial
statement): good evidence in the press. Parlamentarians keen to participate
Is there a role of the press in the accountability triangle?
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16. Conclusions
Relationship with Parliament appears to be mediated by the press; it is
likely that is going to gradually evolve
Challenges:
• Consolidations and spending reviews
Efficiency and efficacy issues enter at the core of the political
debate. Indicators and focus on results become crucial for the
process
• Constitutional balanced budget reform
which role for the CdC and at which point of the decisional process?
• Establishment of the fiscal council (parliamentary budget office)
The mandate of the new body will be on forecasts and aggregate
monitoring. Does it change the CdC function?
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