The Corte dei conti – the Italian Supreme Audit Institution

The article presents the Corte dei conti, which is the Italian supreme audit institution. It is a modern institution, but with roots going back to Medieval Times. In the Italian legal system, the Corte dei conti is a body of constitutional importance included in the Constitution among the “auxiliary bodies” of the government. Nowadays it plays crucial role because it exercises preventive audit over the legitimacy of Government measures, and also ex-post auditing of the administration of the State Budget. It also participates, in those cases and ways established by law, in auditing the financial management of the entities receiving regular budgetary support from the State.