A variety of approaches were being adopted to ensure financial control over expenditure approvals by different European governments. FEE was aware that there was a move to change the approach adopted by some governments. For this reason, FEE undertook a survey in July 2004 to identify current practices to ensure internal financial control over expenditure approvals within central government institutions in the European Union. This report sets out the results and aims to provide further details and explanations on the main two approaches currently adopted:

– In some countries operational managers or budget managers check and authorise payments without an independent check being undertaken before payment;

– In other countries specialist officers provide this check and authorisation function, for example, financial controllers.

The report is divided into five main sections:

– Misunderstandings and definitions of key terms;
– Explanation of the two main approaches;
– Results of the FEE survey;
– Discussion on the two approaches; and
– Conclusions.

The survey addresses 17 European countries and aims to provide more information on one aspect of internal control, the manner in which financial approval is given for proposed items of expenditure.

The publication is available in electronic format only.

 FEE Survey