Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF)

Zisson FACINOU
Inspecteur Général des Finances

Historical

Created on March 14, 1960, a few months before Dahomey’s accession to national sovereignty, the Inspectorate of Finance is now 44 years old at the time when its first days of reflection are being held. It has known its hours of glory, its crossing of the desert and today its institutional renewal. We owe the happy idea of this “balance sheet and outlook” meeting to the young team that leads it today and to the head of the finance department. We would like to thank them very much.

Public finance control is an essential phase of public finance management. When officials of the administration are vested with the power to collect resources of public origin and to carry out expenditure on behalf of the State, local authorities or public establishments, it is essential to control the way in which operations prescribed by the rules of public accounting and the rules of good management are respected.

The origin of the Inspectorate General of Finances in France, Gallic ancestor of the Inspectorate General of Finance of Benin, is generally located in 1816, following the merger of the Inspectorate General of the Treasury (created in 1801) and the Inspectorates. financial authorities. The successive decrees of December 30, 1935, June 8, 1944, April 8, 1947 and August 24, 1961 should considerably extend its area of competence while strengthening its role as Comptroller General of Public Finances.

But in truth, it was already in 1689, under King Louis XIV, that agents specializing in the inspection of financial affairs appeared for the first time in France. A royal decree of May 12, 1689 indeed appointed “inspectors of sizes and farms”, placed directly under the orders of the Comptroller General of Finance, a title then held by the Minister of Finance.

In the beginning as well as subsequently, as reflected in a Note drafted in 1831 at the request of the famous Comptroller General of Finance, Baron Louis, it was for the Inspectorate General of Finance “to verify the management of the universality of handling of public funds and to ensure that all external agents fulfill the obligations imposed on them by laws and regulations. It is also responsible for examining the progress of the various financial services, in order to submit to the Minister of Finance the views which appear suitable for improving the various branches of which the finance department is composed ”.

It will be retraced here the life of the General Inspectorate of Finances of Benin, yesterday and today, while evoking the difficulties and the problems with which it was confronted. Perspectives that could allow this important public finance control body to consolidate its pivotal position in the control of public finance management in Benin will also be considered.