The Audit Bench has unveiled its report for the year 2023, revealing sustained jurisdictional and consultative activity in the service of public money control. Despite a slight increase in its resources, the institution continues to play an essential role in budget transparency and accountability.

In 2023, the Audit Bench, which has a staff of 235 personnel (including 97 magistrates) and a budget of nearly 796.3 million CFA francs (an increase of 8.06%), rendered an impressive total of 744 rulings and judgments, of which 511 were provisional and 233 definitive. It also issued 7 reports of definitive observations, sanctioning the management errors of the ordonnateurs and ensuring the judgment of the accounts of public accountants.

The institution was also solicited by the Government for significant audit missions, particularly the audit of the use of resources allocated to the fight against Covid-19 and the accounting and financial audit of projects financed by various donors.

Beyond its role as a judge, the jurisdiction actively fulfilled its assistance missions. Alongside the Government, the institution collaborated on several major projects in public financial reform. It notably participated in the evaluation work of the management system according to the PEFA methodology and played a key role in clearing tax debts. An admission of 8,579 tax receivables for an amount of 41.2 billion CFA francs was noted, as well as a clearance of 111.1 billion CFA francs of non-offsettable tax debts of public entities. Furthermore, the jurisdiction also certified the revenue declarations of the extractive sector for the fiscal year 2021 and proceeded to receive the oath of new accountants.

With Parliament, it held four meeting forums and produced its report on the execution of the finance law for the fiscal year 2022, issuing its opinion on the draft settlement law and its certification opinion on the State's general account.

However, the persistent challenge remains the implementation of its recommendations. While the jurisdiction welcomes the implementation of three of its previous recommendations in 2023, particularly those relating to the exhaustive recording of downstream state expenditures in the draft settlement law (PLR) and the restriction of opening deposit accounts, one dark point remains. Eighteen recommendations, some dating back to 2008, are still not applied as of December 31, 2023, raising questions about the responsiveness of the administration to the proposed improvements in public management.

For 2024, three new recommendations have been formulated aimed notably at improving the budgeting process such as transmitting the documents of the budget orientation debate to the National Assembly before July 1 and strengthening local governance in terms of holding regular sessions of municipal councils.