The control audit is a tool used by the Control Committees for parliamentary supervision. It is an organisational analysis aimed at verifying the appropriateness of political and operational steering practices in individual units of the federal administration.
As with a medical check-up, a control audit includes measuring the pulse of the administrative unit and examining the tools it uses for planning, carrying out and monitoring the way political mandates are fulfilled. A steering cycle model is used for this analysis.
The control audit identifies the strengths and weaknesses of management and steering procedures. For example, it may reveal that the administrative unit has not received a clear mandate from the Federal Council, that the unit itself has not set clear priorities, that many processes are not documented or that internal interfaces lead to delays. On the other hand, it may reveal exemplary steering practices where clear aims have been set and where periodic checks are carried out to see whether these aims have been achieved. It may show that the steering data obtained are used for decision making at various management levels and forwarded correctly to the level above.
By investigating the political and operational steering practices of individual administrative units of the federal administration the control audit helps to achieve the Control Committees’ aims with regard to parliamentary supervision: it reinforces the democratic accountability of the unit in question, the head of department and the Federal Council, ensures transparency in the federal administration and encourages the early recognition of the need for political action.
This tool was developed following a mandate issued by the Control Committees in 2006. The Control Committees wanted to extend their range of control measures to include a managerial tool that was largely standardised and could be used without too much effort.