Audit of Government Ministries

Abstract

Government ministries—the main executive and administrative bodies of central government—each headed by a minister, a member of government, have been and still remain the classic object of state audit. The increasing complexity of the state function and its far-reaching involvement in the economic and social sphere through central ministries more than offsets the devolution of some of the state activities to other bodies. Moreover, due to what is known as the “flight from the budget”¹ (the use by the state of avenues of action which do not necessitate direct budgetary appropriation and are no longer fully reflected in the budget), and given the increasing use of external contractors “to contract out” activities formerly performed by the Civil Service to outside contractors, state audit has to resort to new and sophisticated approaches to achieve a comprehensive critical review of all the activities of government.