Risk and conditioning factors in the public internal control. Weaknesses in public management concerning the procurement of expenditure files

The article provides new insights in the analysis of risks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public management. Public auditors and internal control professionals in public institutions should be looking for continuous improvement. Transparency, delimitation of competences, contractual procedures, budget management and special payment procedures are identified by the authors as the main areas of management risk faced by public control professionals. The case study country, Spain, like many other EU countries, has a combined internal control model, using an ex-ante control complemented by ex-post control. The main conclusions reached in this article can be applied to other European countries that use similar control models to improve risk management and internal control in their public sectors.