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The General Inspectorate of Finance or ''Inspection générale des finances'' (, IGF) is an interdepartmental auditing and supervisory body in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. 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 modernisation of the state (in particular through its leading role in the General Review of Public Policies). It is currently run by Catherine Sueur. It is placed under the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and
Ministry of Public Action and Accounts The Ministry of Public Action and Accounts ( French: ''Ministère de l'Action et des Comptes publics'') is a ministry of the Government of France. It was created by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, when he split the Ministry of Finance and the E ...
. Yet, because it is an interdepartmental body, it carries out missions for many ministries. The General Inspectorate of Finance is not only a state body; it has been one of the
Grand Corps of the French State Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...
since the 18th century. A small but influential
corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...
, the IGF enjoys a particular prestige: each year it recruits some of the best students graduating from the highly regarded
École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...
, and career opportunities after leaving the IGF are very good in both public and private sectors.


Assignments

Today the General Inspectorate of Finance conducts a variety of assignments upon request both from its supervising ministries and from other ministries, the
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
or the President of the Republic. The IGF has four main missions: * Historically, its 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 Inspectorate of Finance 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 The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, one of the most preeminent museum in France, for the
ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...
and the Agence France Développement, the leading international cooperation agency in France, for the
ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
. * Another very important mission has become, in the context of the French General Review of Public Policies (RGPP), to provide consulting services to a variety of public bodies (37% of total assignments in 2009). * Finally, members of the General Inspectorate 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 The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
or
International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
teams on specific international assignments. The IGF is often compared to a
consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad ra ...
- a consulting firm of the state (its members are civil servants), within the state (it is not an independent body), and for the state (its only client are public administrations). But many differences that regarding the work method of the IGF. The 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).


Composition


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 The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...
(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 Inspectorate 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 Inspectorate. The Head of the General Inspectorate of Finance is Marie-Christine Lepetit. 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 & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...
.


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: * President of France,
Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...
* European central bank former President, Jean-Claude Trichet * Director General of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Jean-Pierre Jouyet * Director of the
World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
,
Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy (born 8 April 1947) is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed Lamy ...
Other famous inspectors of finance include: * François Asselineau * Michel Bon * Henri de Castries *
Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d ...
* Claude Cheysson *
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, ; ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Ministry of the Economy ...
*
Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced major strikes that paralysed the c ...
* Jacques de Larosière * Jean-Marie Messier * Xavier Musca * Jean-Charles Naouri * Frédéric Oudéa * Michel Pébereau * Baudouin Prot *
Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 â€“ 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 199 ...


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inspection generale des finances (France) Government of France
finances Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and discipline of money, currency, assets and liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business Administration wich study the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of an o ...