Released today by the Court of Auditors, the “Comprehensive Review of the Legal Audit of Accounts of Central Administration and Social Security Entities for 2024” reveals that, out of 226 certified accounts, 157 reservations were issued, indicating “structural deficiencies” in their internal control systems.
The report outlines that only 226 (18%) of the 1,251 accounts submitted for 2024 by the relevant entities were accompanied by their respective legal certifications, representing 23.7% of the total assets and 29% of the total reported expenditure.
“This limited coverage demonstrates the low representativeness of certified accounts and hampers a consolidated and reliable reading of the quality of the submitted accounts,” stated the court.
The Court of Auditors notes that the majority (904) of the 1,025 accounts not accompanied by legal account certifications (CLC) are entities that, although they have adopted the Public Administration Accounting Standardization System (SNC-AP), are covered by certification exemption regimes.
These entities carry “an insignificant financial weight,” comprising only 1.5% of the value of assets and 10.2% of the reported expense, thereby mitigating the impact of the absence of certification in the global context of submitted accounts.
Among the remaining 121 uncertified accounts, the court highlights 43 entities that applied accounting standards different from the SNC-AP, most of which are not subject to the obligation of legal account certification.
These entities account for about 70% of the total assets and 38.4% of the total reported expenditure among the submitted accounts.
Of these, 33 were still prepared per the Official Public Accounting Plan (POCP), highlighting a delay in transitioning to the new accounting normalization model, notes the Court of Auditors.
Within the scope of the 226 certified accounts, 157 reservations were issued, most of which (137) resulted from “the lack of sufficient and appropriate audit evidence,” generally referring to structural deficiencies in internal control systems.
The report states that 71.3% of the reservations pertain to recurring situations already noted in previous reports, indicating inertia or significant difficulty in implementing corrective measures and posing a persistent risk to the reliability of public accounts.
The ministries of Education, Science and Innovation, and Health account for more than two-thirds of the reservations issued, “signaling structural problems in these sectors that are likely to have a material impact on the future General State Account,” concludes the Court of Auditors.
