Cour des Comptes
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The Cour des Comptes ("Court of Accounts", also translated into "Court of Financial Auditors") is an institution of the Government of France whose duty is to audit public institutions, as well as some private institutions. It checks whether their accounting is in good form, and whether public funds have been well employed.
It writes a yearly public report.
It is assisted by regional jurisdictions called Chambres régionales des Comptes (regional chambers of accounts").
The Court is divided into 7 chambers, each headed by a president. The Court is headed by the first president, currently Philippe Séguin.
In addition to reporting bad practices, the Court judges the accounting of public accountants and can fine them for late reporting. Also, the Court fines public accountants for the exact amount of any sum of money that, due to an error on their part, they have unduly paid, or failed to recover on behalf of the State. This situation is known as débet (from Latin: "he owes"), and is not limited to any amount; public accountants have to buy insurance in order to face it. Often, though, the Minister of Finance ends up remitting part or total of the amount, because the public accountant would never be able to refund it.
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