Who checks whom? Fiscal council, Audit Court, HATVP, Constitutional Council and criminal judge
Accountability is credible only if oversight powers are themselves separated.
Fiscal council: certify
It assesses fiscal realism, methods and compliance before filing. It does not conduct criminal investigations or convict anyone.
Audit Court: audit execution
It reviews execution, documents variances and reports on public accounts within its constitutional and statutory powers.
HATVP: assets and interests
It checks declarations and changes in assets for officials covered by law and helps prevent conflicts of interest.
Proposed staffing doctrine: expanding its remit should not mean extrapolating headcount at constant human productivity. Documentary pre-screening, register cross-checks, inconsistency detection, timelines and briefing preparation can be automated or AI-assisted; humans remain responsible for adversarial review, legal assessment, sensitive investigations and decisions. This method is developed further in AI: How to Transform France.
Constitutional Council
It decides constitutional compliance and, under the option, could rapidly review a contested negative fiscal certificate.
Prosecution and courts
Criminal investigation and punishment remain separate from fiscal certification, with current special constitutional regimes preserved unless formally amended.
Working documents and data
Legal and institutional sources
French Constitution, Article 34
French fiscal council — official missions
Organic Budget Act, Article 61
Core architecture
consolidation audit
Category 11 financial audit — social support, transparency and anti-corruption →