External public audit, an important pillar in the good financial management of public budgets as well as in combating fraud in the public sector

The external public audit, plays one of the most important roles in ensuring the efficient management of public funds and contributes to the identification, combating and prevention of financial fraud, a contribution that can be evaluated by analysing deviations with financial implications on the public budgets. The objective of this paper is to highlight the existence of direct proportionality between the quality of public audits with the value of identified deviations. After reviewing the specialized literature, we used the qualitative methodology to synthesize the data contained in the Annual Public Reports on local public finances published by the Court of Accounts of Romania and we analysed factors as additional income, damages, referrals to criminal investigation bodies. The sample includes the territorial administrative units of the counties and municipality ’s of Romania. The results of the study revealed that, although through its audit actions, the Court of Accounts of Romania identified deviations like additional income or damages with a constant value for the audited years, the referrals to the criminal investigation bodies are in a decrease. At the end of the paper the conclusions, future directions and limitations of the study are presented.