Public Financial Control: Searching of Nature

Abstract

Financial control is understood as a term that covers different control activities of thenational and local governments in the public finance sector by Russian scholars. Suchunderstanding demonstrates the use of the “sectoral approach” to interpret financialcontrol, while scholars put forward various positions explaining the inclusion of tax control,currency control and control (supervision) by the Bank of Russia, including control overmonetary circulation, in public financial control sphere. In past and nowadays, scholars inpublic finance law put forward the idea of integrating all types of public control under asingle law on national and local financial control. Meanwhile, this paper substantiates thefailure of the use of the sectoral approach to understand of financial control and justifies theuse of the substantive approach to development of a doctrinal concept of financial control.The closest examination of financial control and its correlation with currency, tax control andbanking supervision on subjects and objectives demonstrates their essential differences.Public financial control does not combine various types of control over public finance, butit is an independent type of control on a par with tax and currency control. The paper alsodifferentiates between control and supervision, primarily depending on the inclusion in thefinancial resources management. It substantiates failure of the proposition that an audit isa type of financial control. The study of the legal framework of financial control suggestsfinancial control is not only a public law category, but also private law category. It is carriedout by the owner of financial resources as an interested person. The author criticizes theidea that the term “budgetary control” should be established by the Budgetary Code ofRussia, because this change will only be editorial in nature and will not allow building a“single system” of public control in the public finance sector under a single law.
For citation: Ryabova E.V. (2019) Public Financial Control: Searching of Nature. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 2, pp. 103–123 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17-323/2072-8166.2019.2.103.123