Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors is the supreme governmental accounting body of Spain responsible of the comptrolling of the public accounts and the auditing of the accountancy of the political parties, in accordance with the Constitution and its Organic Act. The Court of Auditors is composed by the President and 12 counsellors. The Counsellors are appointed by the Cortes Generales, six of them by the Congress and the other six by the Senate. To be appointed Counsellor of the Court it is needed to be a person with knowledge in audit, judge, prosecutor, university teacher or a public servant in an office that requires superior studies, lawyer, economist or trade professor, all of them with recognized experience and with fifteen years of professional activity. The Court Account Counselors are independent and irremovable. Their term is 9 years. History The very first origins of the Court go back to the Reign of John II of Castile. Álvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile, when the King was advised to approve a royal order to simplify tax collection due to the difficulties in the collection of taxes and in the ordering of the accounts. This royal order was approved on July 2, 1437, and it regulated the Senior Accountants, a group of civil servants in charge of resolving economic conflicts and reclaming the money that was not paid in time. During the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand, new ordinances were granted on January 9, 1478, to put an end to the backlog of outstanding accounts since 1454, in the Kingdom of Castile. The Accountancy was given the exclusive and absolute authority to claim, censor and reject all the accounts of public officials that handle flows and effects. The Senior Accountants were given the responsibility of reviewing them, those taken and completed, as well as determining and judging the scope of accounts. They are also authorized to proceed against any person or Council, and allow them to act on behalf of the Kings.