Relations with other Supreme Audit Institutions and International Bodies

The Spanish Court of Audit as an associate member of OLACEFS

The Court is an associate member of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), Regional Working Group of INTOSAI, having joined as an adherent member at the 1988 General Assembly of the Latin American Institute of Auditing Sciences (ILACIF), OLACEFS former name.

OLACEFS has 22 full members and 28 associate members.

Currently, as an associate member of OLACEFS, the Court of Audit is entitled to the speaking right in the technical and administrative plenary sessions of the General Assemblies, as well as in the administrative plenary sessions of the Governing Board.

The Court of Audit attends OLACEFS annual General Assemblies regularly. This is the Organization’s highest authority which sets the overall policy of the Organization and promotes the achievement of its objectives. In addition to this, during the General Assembly the main financial (budget approval and setting of members’ contributions, among others), structural and organizational decisions are made.

Within the framework of the initiatives promoted by OLACEFS, the Court of Audit has taken part in a coordinated audit on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which seeks to assess the effectiveness of governments in the process of implementing the Sustainable Development Goal linked to gender equality (SDG5). As a result of the participation of the Spanish Court of Audit, this is OLACEFS’s first transcontinental coordinated audit. The main conclusions and recommendations resulting from the audit reports of all participating SAIs, including those of the Spanish Court of Audit’s performance audit report on the preparation for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals with a gender focus (SDG5), are included in a joint report.

The Court of Audit, member of JURISAI

On October 8 2024, the French Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) had the honor of hosting the constitutive General Assembly of JURISAI, the new international organization dedicated to SAIs with jurisdictional competencies.

JURISAI is the international successor organization to the Forum of Jurisdictional SAIs, created in Paris in 2015, with regard to the promotion of the jurisdictional model and the strengthening of related norms, professional standards and practices.

The members (31 including 28 full members, 1 associate member, and 2 observer members) gathered during the General Assembly unanimously adopted JURISAI’s strategic plan, while proceeding with the election of the governing bodies of this new entity.

The French Cour des comptes has been elected President of JURISAI, while the Tribunal de Contas de Portugal will hold the 1st vice-presidency, and the Tribunal de Contas da União will be 2nd Vice-president. The Court of Accounts of the Kingdom of Morocco has been elected General secretary of JURISAI. The Cour des Comptes du Sénégal has been elected chair of the Capacity Building Commission, and the Corte dei conti of Italy has been elected to the chairmanship of the Commission of Public Prosecutors’ Offices. SAI’s of Angola, Djibouti, Spain and Mauritania will also be part of the Governing Board.

Relations with other Supreme Audit Institutions

Bilateral cooperation agreements

The Court of Audit signs collaboration agreements with SAIs of other countries, as well as with Regional Audit Institutions. Different activities are carried out through these agreements: training and development; exchange of experts; or joint research projects, including technical assistances that, in addition to training activities, involve collaborations to complete diagnosis reports or even the assistance in conducting audits.

Other bilateral activities

The Court of Audit carries out various international activities throughout the year, among which the following may be mentioned:

Institutional visits of Presidents and other SAIs’ Authorities.
Working visits of experts from other SAIs or officials from other countries.
Technical assistances, financed with other international funds such as the World Bank, the European Investment Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank, among others.
Specific training activities with Latin America, usually in cooperation with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and with the International Latin American Foundation for Public Administration and Public Policies (FIAPP).
Other training activities as well as exchange of experiences with SAIs all over the world, specially from EUROSAI.

External Audit of International Organizations and other related activities

European Peace Facility (former ATHENA Mechanism)

The Court of Audit participates in the College of Auditors of the European Peace Facility (EPF). The EPF was established in March 2021 as an extra-budgetary instrument that strengthens the European Union's capacity to act as a provider of global security. The EPF has a total budget of more than EUR 17 billion for the period 2021-2027.

The EPF has two pillars:

The Operations Pillar, which finances the common costs of EU military missions; replacing the former Mechanism for financing security and defence military operations (ATHENA).
The Assistance Measures pillar, which develops cooperation and promotion actions for European defence and subsidises Union actions aimed at third countries and regional or international organisations, with the aim of strengthening military and defence capabilities, as well as supporting the military aspects of peace support operations.

Joint Organization for Co-operation on Armaments (OCCAR)

The Court of Audit is part of the Board of Auditors of OCCAR, which is composed of one representative from each Member State of the Organisation, and whose function is the financial audit of the accounts of the Organisation, as well as the control of the effectiveness, economy and efficiency in the management of funds and in the systems of internal control and management and administration of the armament programs, such as the A400M aircraft, the Tiger helicopter or the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), in whose design and development Spain is participating.

European Fighter Aircraft EF-2000 (EUROFIGHTER)

The Court of Audit carries out audits in the scope of the national participation in the European Fighter Aircraft (Eurofighter) project, with field work and information gathering developed at the NETMA Agency in Munich (Germany) - coinciding with the audit of the International Board of Auditors for NATO (IBAN), which is responsible for the audit of the global project, and taking part in the annual meeting of the SAIs of the other countries that promote the Project (Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom).

International Board of Auditors for NATO (IBAN)

In addition to the collaboration with IBAN in the abovementioned external audit of the EF-2000 project, the Court of Audit collaborates with the International Board of Auditors for NATO by means of participating in the annual meeting of IBAN with members’ SAIs, where the IBAN Annual Report is presented and professional exchanges also take place.

European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)

The Council of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), composed of the high-level representatives of the Member States funding EUMETSAT programmes and activities, at its meeting on 1-2 December 2020, unanimously approved (except for the abstention by courtesy of Spain), to commission the Spanish Court of Audit to carry out an external audit of EUMETSAT's accounts for the financial years 2021 to 2024. The corresponding contract was signed on 20 May 2021.

The objective of the external audit will be, in addition to issuing an audit opinion on the EUMETSAT's financial statements, to verify compliance with its financial regulations in each of the years indicated, and to analyse the organisation's procedures from the perspective of compliance with the principles of sound financial management.

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

The European Southern Observatory or ESO (also formally known as the European Organisation for Astronomical Observation in the Southern Hemisphere) is an intergovernmental organisation with 16 Member States, with Chile as its host State and Australia as a strategic partner.

During the 105th Session of its Council, which took place in London (United Kingdom) on 7 and 8 June 2022, the Spanish Court of Audit was appointed as external auditor of the Organisation's financial statements for the period 2023-2025. During the Council session celebrated in June, 2025, where the Audit Opinion and Long Report for the financial year 2024 has been presented, the audit mandate has been extended for a further year (2026).

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC)

During the EMBL and the EMBC meeting held from 25 to 27 November 2024, the Court of Audit was appointed external auditor of their financial statements for the period 2026-2028.

The EMBL is a scientific organisation with 29 member states, with seats in six cities on the continent (Barcelona, Grenoble, Hamburg, Heilderberg, Hinxton and Rome). The organization carries out more than 110 independent research projects in the field of molecular biology.

The European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) is an intergovernmental organisation with 31 Member States. It funds the programmes of the EMBL that support excellent life scientists.

EMBC and EMBL also cooperate with countries and organisations outside Europe to foster interactions with international scientific communities.

The appointment of the SAI of a member state as external auditor of the financial statements of EMBL and EMBC takes place on a rotating basis. The Court of Audit was previously external auditor during the period 1998-2000.