Swedish National Audit Office

The Swedish National Audit Office (Swedish: Riksrevisionen) is the agency responsible for oversight of the state finances through financial and performance-based audits of state agencies, state-owned companies and the Government of Sweden. It serves directly under the Riksdag and is therefore independent of the Cabinet. All state agencies are required to submit copies of their annual accounts and reports to this office for review.[1]

Swedish National Audit Office
Riksrevisionen
Agency overview
Formed1 July 2003 (2003-07-01)
Preceding agencies
  • Statskontoret (1680–1920)
  • Riksdagens revisorer (1867–2003)
  • Riksräkenskapsverket (1920–1963)
  • Riksrevisionsverket (1963–2003)
Headquarters Stockholm

The mission of the Swedish National Audit Office is to examine the government's activities in order to contribute to the effective management of state administration. The agency is led by three Auditors General (riksrevisorer) who are appointed for seven-year terms without the possibility of re-appointment. The Auditors General decide independently on aspects of the state government to be audited, how to do its investigations. The independence of the office and the Auditors General is specified in Chapter 13 of the Regeringsformen, which is part of the Constitution of Sweden. The current Auditors General for the period 2017–2024 are Stefan Lundgren, Ingvar Mattson and Helena Lindberg.

History

Auditing responsibilities in regards to the finances of the Swedish Government first began in 1530 when King Gustav Vasa set up the Räntekammaren, soon to become the Kammarkollegiet ("the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency") under control of the Lord High Treasurer of Sweden. Under King John III, the annual Rikshufvudboken was published which contained a breakdown of all national finances of Sweden within that year. In 1680, King Charles XI moved all governmental auditing responsibilities from the Kammarkollegiet to a new government agency called the Statskontoret (sv; "the Agency for Public Management"), which lasted until 1920 when the auditing portion of Statskontoret was transferred to a new agency called Riksräkenskapsverket, under the control of the Swedish Ministry of Finance. In 1963, the Riksräkenskapsverket was renamed as the Riksrevisionsverket (sv; "the national audit office").

Separately in 1867, the Riksdagens revisorer (sv; "auditors of the Riksdag") was formed as an administrative authority of the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) to audit and review all activities of the Riksdag.

On 15 December 2000, the Riksdag decided to merge both Riksrevisionsverket and Riksdagens revisorer into the present-day Riksrevisionen, which took effect on 1 July 2003. The final Auditor General of Riksrevisionsverket, Inga-Britt Ahlenius, was against said merger, as she claimed in several statements to the media that the merger would limit Riksrevisionen's ability to act independently from the government.

See also

References
  • Sveriges Riksdag (translated by Ray Bradfield), The Constitution of Sweden: The Fundamental Laws and the Riksdag Act. Sveriges Riksdag, Stockholm. 2012. ISBN 978-91-86673-25-3
  1. Geert Bouckaert; John Halligan (2008-02-14), Managing performance, p. 325, ISBN 978-0-415-42395-3 – via Google Books
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