Comptroller General of the State

The Comptroller General of the State (IGAE) is a senior official of the Ministry of Finance of Spain. The comptroller directs the Office of the Comptroller General of the State Administration, which is an internal supervisory agency with the task of supervising the state public administration and of managing the public accounts.

Comptroller General of the State Interventor General del Estado
Coat of Arms used by the Government
Incumbent Pablo Arellano Pardo since 23 June 2018
Ministry of Finance Undersecretariat of Finance Office of the Comptroller General of the State Administration
Style	The Most Excellent
Abbreviation	IGAE
Reports to	Under Secretary of Finance
Nominator	Minister of Finance
Appointer	King of Spain
Term length	No fixed term
Precursor	Director-General for Accounting
Inaugural holder	José Ramón de Oya
Formation	January 4, 1874
Website	www.igae.pap.hacienda.gob.es

The Comptroller General is appointed by the Monarch with the advice of the Finance Minister. The Comptroller General reports directly to the Under Secretary of Finance.

Purpose

The Comptroller oversees the IGAE agency, which has two core functions. Its primary function is that of a supervisory agency. It is responsible for verifying – through previous monitoring of legality, continuous financial control, public audits, and financial control of subsidies – that the public sector's economic and financial activity complies with the principles of legality, economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Its second function is to act as the center for the management of public accounts. It is responsible for providing reliable, complete, professional and independent accounting information about public management. In this regard, it is responsible for drafting the public sector's financial accounts according to the guidance set out by the European System of Accounts. The most specific result of this is the determination of public deficit, which is essential to the nation's economic life. It calculates the deficit for the central government and each of its sub-sectors.[1]

Organisation

A large number of officials and administrative bodies depend upon the Comptroller General. To carry out its functions, the IGAE agency has delegations known as Comptroller Delegations (Spanish: Intervenciónes delegates) in all the General State Administration departments, including ministerial departments, public agencies and regional and local administrations. In addition, the law specifies that certain government bodies must have integrated delegations: Ministry of Defence (IGD), Social Security (IGSS), the General Secretariat for the Treasury and International Financing, and the Directorate-General for Personnel Costs and Public Pensions.

In addition to the bodies mentioned above, the IGAE agency is divided into seven large departments:

• The National Audit Office, further divided into five division.
• The National Accounting Office, divided into three divisions.
• The Deputy Directorate-General for Intervention and Control.
• The Deputy Directorate-General for Studies and Coordination.
• The Deputy Directorate-General for Organization, Planning and Resource Management.
• The Budgetary Computing Office, divided into four divisions.
• The National Anti-Fraud Coordination Service.

It is also supported by a dedicated technical office.[2]

List of Comptrollers General

No.	Comptroller General	Term of Service	Appointing Prime Minister
1	José Ramón de Oya	7 January 1874 – 8 August 1878	Francisco Serrano
2	Raimundo Fernández Villaverde	8 August 1878 – 7 July 1880	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
3	José Ramón de Oya	7 July 1880 – 30 June 1887
4	Ángel González de la Peña	30 June 1887 – 16 July 1895	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
5	Adrián Mínguez y Ranz	16 July 1895 – 14 September 1906	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
6	José María de Retes y Muyraní	14 September 1906 – 1 September 1916	José López Domínguez
7	Enrique de Yllana y Sánchez de Vargas	1 September 1916 – April 12, 1924	Álvaro de Figueroa
8	José Corral y Larre	12 April – 28 June 1924	Miguel Primo de Rivera
9	Arturo Foreat Rivera	28 June 1924 – 4 February 1930
10	Enrique de Yllana y Sánchez de Vargas	4 February – 27 April 1930	Dámaso Berenguer
11	Adolfo Sixto Hontán	27 April 1930 – 1938	Niceto Alcalá Zamora
Spanish Civil War
12	Eugenio Gómez Pereira	13 March 1942 – 7 September 1951	Francisco Franco
13	José Manuel Rozas Eguiburu	7 September 1951 – 27 July 1965
14	Felicísimo de Blas Hernando	27 July 1965 – 2 July 1973
15	Joaquín Collada Andréu	2 July 1973 – 6 June 1976	Luis Carrero Blanco
16	Augusto Gutiérrez Robles	6 June 1976 – 18 July 1980	Carlos Arias Navarro
17	Ignacio Montaño Jiménez	18 July 1980 – 24 December 1982	Adolfo Suárez
18	Juan Francisco Martín Seco	24 December 1982 – 23 February 1984	Felipe González
19	Ricardo Bolufer Nieto	23 February 1984 – 7 October 1988
20	Juan Aracil Martín	7 October 1988 – 23 March 1991
21	Purificación Esteso Ruiz	23 March 1991 – 15 July 1994
22	Gregorio Máñez Vindel	15 July 1994 – 7 May 1996
23	Rafael Muñoz López-Carmona	7 May 1996 – 10 September 1999	José María Aznar
24	Alicia Díaz Zurro	10 September 1999 – 24 April 2004
25	José Alberto Pérez Pérez	24 April 2004 – 13 January 2012	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
26	José Carlos Alcalde Hernández	13 January 2012 – 25 November 2016	Mariano Rajoy
27	María Luisa Lamela Diaz	25 November 2016 – 23 June 2018
28	Pablo Arellano Pardo	23 June 2018 – present	Pedro Sánchez

References

1. "IGAE:Intervención General de la Administración del Estado". www.igae.pap.hacienda.gob.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 October 2018.
2. "Royal Decree 1113/2018, of September 7, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Treasury is developed". www.boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 October 2018.