The Significance of Pre-Contractual Audit Carried Out by the Hellenic Court of Auditors

Abstract

Public procurements represent a significant percentage of GDP in OECD countries and are critical to the delivery of services. However, public procurement can also provide several opportunities for corruption. Thus, the Hellenic Court of Audit (HCA) examines the legality and the regularity of public contract's draft (ex-ante audit) with significant financial value and only after its "visa" (approval) by the relevant section of the court, the contract can be signed and come into force. Several reforms in the public procurement's legal framework took place these last years. This paper deals with this issue and presents the first results of these reforms. Our analysis showed that the pre-contractual audit still remains an important type of ex-ante audit, by preventing on time the non-legal disbursement of public money.