General Inspection of Finances (France)
Encyclopedia
The General Inspection of Finances or Inspection générale des finances (IGF) is an interdepartemental auditing and supervisory body in France
. Its general mission is to provide oversight, audit, analysis, consulting, and evaluation services in administrative, economic, and financial matters. In the recent years, the IGF has been at the head of the movement of modernization of the state (in particular through its leading role in the General Review of Public Policies
).
It is is run by Jean Bassère. It is placed under the joint responsibility of the Ministry for Economy, Finance, and Industry and the Ministry for Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform
. Yet, because it an interdepartemental body, it carries out missions for many ministries, and especially the Ministry of Labour.
The General Inspection of Finances is not only a state body; it is also a corps
. It has been one of the Grands corps of the State within the French Civil Service
since the 18th century. A small but influential corps
, the IGF enjoys a particular prestige: it recruits each year some of the best students graduating from the highly regarded École Nationale d'Administration
and career opportunities after leaving the IGF are among the nicest (in both public and private sectors).
or the President of the Republic. The IGF has four main missions:
Fields of investigation offer a great diversity of subjects as the IGF can be called upon by any ministry, jointly with the Finance or Budget ministers. Members also work with World Bank
or International Monetary Fund
teams on specific international assignments.
The IGF is often compared to a consulting firm - a consulting firm of the state (its members are civil servants), inside the state (it is a body in the administration), and for the state (its only client are public administration). But many differences that exist regarding the work method of the IGF. An interesting point is that IGF's reports allow three levels of reading: a short summary for ministers (2-5 pages), a synthesis for their staff and for high-level civil servants (20-50 pages), and the complete report for the administration agents (200-800 pages).
Inspectors of finance are mainly recruited after graduation from the École Nationale d'Administration
(the French national school for high ranking civil servants) - working for the inspection is often one of the top choices of graduates. They spend at least four years working for the IGF before moving to a career outside the IGF. The tournée represents a richly rewarding experience for its members, with a heavy emphasis on teamwork, enabling inspectors of finance to develop their capabilities progressively.
The General inspection of finance also draws upon talent from a diversity of backgrounds, recruiting via an “external channel”, to bring in executive grade personnel with ten years’ public service experience and enable the staff to benefit from a wider range of experience.
There are 40 or so general inspectors of finance, who embody the expertise and experience of the IGF. In some cases they carry out assignments directly, in others they supervise or direct them, in certain cases overseeing and guiding members of the tournée. As consultant general inspectors they provide expertise in a specific area, Finance Ministry Department or another ministry. They bring the IGF’s vision to bear on their particular sphere, contribute to the planning and oversight of missions, supervise the implementation of their recommendations, and ensure knowledge acquired is properly capitalized on and circulated.
.
Current prominent figures of the Inspection include:
Other famous inspectors of finance include:
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Its general mission is to provide oversight, audit, analysis, consulting, and evaluation services in administrative, economic, and financial matters. In the recent years, the IGF has been at the head of the movement of modernization of the state (in particular through its leading role in the General Review of Public Policies
French General Review of Public Policies
The French General Review of Public Policies , in French "Révision générale des politiques publiques", aims at reducing public spending while increasing the efficiency and quality of public action. It was launched by the Fillon Government in July 2007...
).
It is is run by Jean Bassère. It is placed under the joint responsibility of the Ministry for Economy, Finance, and Industry and the Ministry for Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform
Ministry of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Administration
The Ministry of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Administration of France is a ministry that was created by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, when he split the Ministry of Finance and Economy into a ministry of budget and a Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment and the ministry...
. Yet, because it an interdepartemental body, it carries out missions for many ministries, and especially the Ministry of Labour.
The General Inspection of Finances is not only a state body; it is also a corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
. It has been one of the Grands corps of the State within the French Civil Service
French Civil Service
The French Civil Service is the set of civil servants working for the French government.Not all employees of the state and public institutions or corporations are civil servants; however, the media often incorrectly equate "government employee" or "employee of a public corporation" with...
since the 18th century. A small but influential corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
, the IGF enjoys a particular prestige: it recruits each year some of the best students graduating from the highly regarded École Nationale d'Administration
École nationale d'administration
The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...
and career opportunities after leaving the IGF are among the nicest (in both public and private sectors).
Missions
Today the General Inspection of Finances conducts a variety of assignments upon request both from its supervising ministries and from other ministries, the Prime MinisterPrime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
or the President of the Republic. The IGF has four main missions:
- Historically, it core assignment has been to oversee the decentralized services of the financial ministries. The inspectors of finance are empowered to obtain all documents necessary for purposes of oversight. They are responsible for verifying the quality of procedures and their implementation, the regularity of operations, and also for combating fraud and monitoring the ethical behavior of civil servants. This traditional vocation of the General inspection now accounts for only 9% of its activity.
- Increasingly, the General Inspection of Finances is called upon to conduct evaluations of public bodies or public policies (34% of total assignments in 2009) for their ministries; for example, in 2009, it audited the Centre Pompidou, one of the most preeminent museum in France, for the ministry of Culture and the Agence France Développement, the leading international cooperation agency in France, for the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Another very important mission has become, in the context of the French General Review of Public PoliciesFrench General Review of Public PoliciesThe French General Review of Public Policies , in French "Révision générale des politiques publiques", aims at reducing public spending while increasing the efficiency and quality of public action. It was launched by the Fillon Government in July 2007...
(RGPP), to provide consulting services to a variety of public bodies (37% of total assignments in 2009). - Finally, members of the General Inspection of Finance frequently assist members of parliament on a governmental mission or take part in ad hoc committees, such as the Juppe - Rocard committee reviewing the priorities of the National Loan issuance in 2009. These assistance assignments accounted for 15% of the workload in 2009.
Fields of investigation offer a great diversity of subjects as the IGF can be called upon by any ministry, jointly with the Finance or Budget ministers. Members also work with World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
or International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
teams on specific international assignments.
Values
The core values that serve as guarantees of the quality of the IGF’s work are:- on-site investigations, covering the entire chain of command
- opportunity for the audited services to be heard in order to guarantee the rigor of the findings
- personal responsibility of inspectors for their reports
- cross-disciplinary approach covering financial, economic, legal, human resources, and all other relevant aspects
- high degree of responsiveness, to provide rapid reactions to requests for reports: the average length of a full-time assignment is three months.
The IGF is often compared to a consulting firm - a consulting firm of the state (its members are civil servants), inside the state (it is a body in the administration), and for the state (its only client are public administration). But many differences that exist regarding the work method of the IGF. An interesting point is that IGF's reports allow three levels of reading: a short summary for ministers (2-5 pages), a synthesis for their staff and for high-level civil servants (20-50 pages), and the complete report for the administration agents (200-800 pages).
Tournée and Inspecteurs Généraux des Finances
The Tournée consists of approximately 50 people, with a median age of 34. The group comprises the inspectors of finance (members of the 'corps'), seconded civil servants from other ministries (acting inspectors of finance), and interns. Placed under the supervision of the general inspectors, it performs the bulk of the operational work entailed in carrying out the assignments entrusted to the IGF.Inspectors of finance are mainly recruited after graduation from the École Nationale d'Administration
École nationale d'administration
The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...
(the French national school for high ranking civil servants) - working for the inspection is often one of the top choices of graduates. They spend at least four years working for the IGF before moving to a career outside the IGF. The tournée represents a richly rewarding experience for its members, with a heavy emphasis on teamwork, enabling inspectors of finance to develop their capabilities progressively.
The General inspection of finance also draws upon talent from a diversity of backgrounds, recruiting via an “external channel”, to bring in executive grade personnel with ten years’ public service experience and enable the staff to benefit from a wider range of experience.
There are 40 or so general inspectors of finance, who embody the expertise and experience of the IGF. In some cases they carry out assignments directly, in others they supervise or direct them, in certain cases overseeing and guiding members of the tournée. As consultant general inspectors they provide expertise in a specific area, Finance Ministry Department or another ministry. They bring the IGF’s vision to bear on their particular sphere, contribute to the planning and oversight of missions, supervise the implementation of their recommendations, and ensure knowledge acquired is properly capitalized on and circulated.
Current composition
There are approximately 260 members of the corps, of which 70 inspectors currently work within the General inspection. The Head of the General inspection of finance is Jean Bassères, former director general for public accounting services and former secretary general of the ministry of Finance. Each mission usually gathers between one and four Inspecteurs des Finances under the supervision of one Inspecteur Général des Finances, and can sometimes involve other auditing body (such as the Inspection Générale des Affaires Sociales or the Inspection Générale de l'Administration) or even private consulting firms such as McKinsey & CompanyMcKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company, Inc. is a global management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management. McKinsey serves as an adviser to many businesses, governments, and institutions...
.
Career opportunities after leaving the Inspection
Junior inspectors generally complete four years of assignments before moving on to other ministerial departments, public bodies, ministerial cabinets, international organizations or the private sector.Current prominent figures of the Inspection include:
- European central bankEuropean Central BankThe European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
President, Jean-Claude TrichetJean-Claude TrichetJean-Claude Trichet is a French civil servant who was the president of the European Central Bank, a position he held from 2003 to 2011. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements... - President of the French Markets Authority (the French equivalent for the United States Securities and Exchange CommissionUnited States Securities and Exchange CommissionThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a federal agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States...
) Autorité des Marchés Financiers, Jean-Pierre JouyetJean-Pierre Jouyet-Biography:Jean-Pierre Jouyet, was born on 13 February 1954 at Montreuil-sous-Bois in the suburbs of Paris, and is a top civil servant who has also held political positions.... - Director of the World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
, Pascal LamyPascal LamyPascal Lamy is the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, a French political advisor, a businessman, and a former European Commissioner for Trade...
Other famous inspectors of finance include:
- Michel BonMichel BonMichel Bon is a French businessman and politician born in 1943. He is a graduate of the ESSEC, of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, of the École nationale d'administration and of Stanford Business School....
- Henri de CastriesHenri de CastriesHenri de La Croix de Castries, 5th Comte de Castries is a French businessman. he is Chairman and CEO of AXA since May 2000. His father is probably Christian de Castries, the commander of the doomed French garrison at Dien Bien Phu...
- Jacques Chaban-DelmasJacques Chaban-DelmasJacques Chaban-Delmas was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. In addition, for almost half a century, he was Mayor of Bordeaux and a deputy for the Gironde département....
- Claude CheyssonClaude CheyssonClaude Cheysson is a French Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of Pierre Mauroy from 1981 to 1984.-Career:...
- Valéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
- Alain JuppéAlain JuppéAlain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...
- Jacques de LarosièreJacques de LarosièreJacques de Larosière de Champfeu is a French civil servant. He is the Chairman of the Strategic Committee of the French Treasury and Advisor to BNP Paribas, became President of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in September 1993 in the wake of the scandals that led...
- Jean-Marie MessierJean-Marie MessierJean-Marie Messier is a French businessman who was Chairman and Chief Executive of the multinational media conglomerate Vivendi SA until 2002...
- Xavier MuscaXavier MuscaXavier Musca is a French economist, writer, and public administrator. As of February 27, 2011, he is the Secretary-General of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Office...
- Michel PébereauMichel PébereauMichel Pébereau is a French businessman. He is the current Chairman of Banque Nationale de Paris and its former CEO. He graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1965.-Biography:...
- Baudouin ProtBaudouin ProtBaudouin Prot is CEO of BNP Paribas, the world's biggest banking group.-Biography:Prot was born 24 May 1951. He graduated from HEC Paris and from the École nationale d'administration...
- Michel RocardMichel RocardMichel Rocard is a French politician, member of the Socialist Party . He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991, during which he created the Revenu minimum d'insertion , a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and led the Matignon Accords regarding the status...
- Jean-Claude TrichetJean-Claude TrichetJean-Claude Trichet is a French civil servant who was the president of the European Central Bank, a position he held from 2003 to 2011. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements...