Strategic plan and governance – Cour

Values

We are committed to the values included in our previous strategic plan, namely:

Integrity: We adhere to exemplary ethical and conduct standards in carrying out our mission and in our relations with stakeholders. We also place great importance on our credibility.
Independence: We deliver our judgments and determine the subjects, scope, extent and results of our work impartially, without interference and in accordance with international standards and best practices.
Professionalism: We observe international professional standards in carrying out our functions and perform our missions efficiently and objectively.

Vision

Our vision is to be an independent financial court and a leading Supreme Audit Institution, open to and engaged with its environment, thereby strengthening governance in the management of public funds. To perform our functions properly and earn the trust of citizens and other stakeholders, we must be independent, impartial and exemplary in our practices and in managing our operations. This requires transparent and objective audit standards and methods and stronger internal governance. We must also respond appropriately to stakeholder expectations and effectively manage emerging risks and the changing environment in which we operate. All of this will help strengthen accountability, transparency and integrity in the management of public funds.

Strategic objectives and expected results

To strengthen strategic management at the Court of Accounts, consolidate the principles of good governance, and set future directions that reinforce the Court’s position and support its role in safeguarding public funds and making a difference in citizens’ lives, the Court has prepared its third strategic plan, covering 2022 to 2026. Its strategic objectives are:

First strategic objective: Strengthen Tunisian citizens’ trust in the Court of Accounts and consolidate its communication and interaction with its environment.
Second strategic objective: Help guarantee accountability and transparency in the management of public funds and improve public service performance.
Third strategic objective: Strengthen the Court of Accounts’ judicial role to enable fair and effective financial justice.

Implementation mechanisms

Results and capacities linked to strengthening Tunisian citizens’ trust in the Court of Accounts and consolidating its communication and interaction with its environment

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To achieve the first result — strengthening Tunisian citizens’ trust in the Court of Accounts as a model of transparency, accountability, integrity and neutrality, and consolidating its communication and interaction with its environment — the Court must improve its results in preparing regular accountability reports on its management and fulfilment of its missions and publishing them for the public, as well as its communication results with internal and external stakeholders.

The intended improvements require stronger Court capacities on several fronts. In particular, an effective strategic management system must link the Court’s operational plans to its annual budgets, monitor implementation of its strategic and operational plans, and report on them internally and externally. An effective strategic monitoring and risk management system is also needed, including a dedicated unit, a risk register and the necessary follow-up activities, so that the Court can respond to emerging risks in a changing environment. The Court must strengthen professional ethics by updating its code of ethics and introducing mechanisms to reinforce compliance with it. These improvements also require stronger capacities to organise and develop support systems: reviewing the organisation of registry services, strengthening internal control, adopting modern budget management methods, establishing an effective integrated information system, meeting the requirements for the Court’s administrative and financial independence, increasing its material and logistical resources, and issuing specific statutes for the bodies of judges and registrars and judicial assistants. Achieving these improvements further requires developing information and communication technology infrastructure by providing access to national applications and the capacity to process and store data from various applications, as well as digitising documents, introducing electronic archiving and enabling remote work, while strengthening the Court’s IT security. The Court’s need for stronger quality control over the coming period is also clear: documented quality-control policies and procedures must cover all aspects of its activities, and a quality-assurance system must be introduced. Effective stakeholder communication requires the development and activation of mechanisms for communicating with internal and external stakeholders, notably updating the Court’s communication plan, establishing mechanisms to monitor its implementation, improving the Court’s use of modern means of communication, creating a system for monitoring and responding to stakeholder expectations, and making operational the unit responsible for relations with the legislative and executive branches provided for in Article 21 of Organic Law No. 41 of 2019.

Results and capacities linked to helping guarantee accountability and transparency in the management of public funds and improving public service performance

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To achieve the second result — helping guarantee accountability and transparency in the management of public funds and improving public service performance — the Court must improve its outputs. These specifically include performance and compliance audit reports with wider coverage and better quality, published in good time; financial audit reports based on international standards; reports on the draft budget settlement law meeting the requirements of the new Organic Budget Law; value-adding public policy evaluation reports linked to the Sustainable Development Goals; and more comprehensive follow-up reports on the results of the Court’s audit work.

These improvements require stronger audit planning capacities, particularly three-year and annual work programmes covering all areas of the Court’s jurisdiction, meeting stakeholder expectations, taking account of emerging risks and priorities, and complying with INTOSAI standards. They also require the development of audit methodologies and processes through audit guides and formalised procedures for audit operations.

Improving these outputs also requires the capacity to establish an effective information system and use modern technologies, including a system for monitoring audit coverage that, in turn, improves work programming, together with digitisation, an electronic archiving system and dedicated business applications for carrying out audits and following up their results.

Achieving the intended improvements in audit outputs also requires the necessary human resources across the Court’s judicial, administrative and technical bodies, their optimal deployment and the development of their skills. This particularly includes better human resources management, beginning with planning and accurately identifying needs in different specialisms, while providing equitable opportunities to develop skills and abilities so as to increase the impact and added value of the Court’s work.

Results and capacities linked to strengthening the Court’s judicial role in establishing fair and effective financial justice

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To achieve its third objective — strengthening its judicial role to ensure fair and diligent financial justice — the Court must change the outputs associated with its judicial powers, improving the coverage rate of judicial oversight and ensuring work that meets quality requirements and results in judgments within reasonable periods.

This in turn requires improvements in planning and programming judicial oversight work, establishing an effective information system and using modern technologies. Specifically, the Court must produce evidence on the performance of its judicial jurisdiction, develop an IT system to track contentious proceedings from receipt of accounts through notification of judgments, digitise case files and establish an electronic archiving system.

In the same context, the Court must improve its capacity to mobilise the necessary human resources, assign them optimally and develop their skills, and define judicial oversight methodologies and processes.

In particular, it must better define judgment procedures; update the specific guide for judicial examination of public accountants’ accounts and the guide on sanctions for management offences; determine time limits and mechanisms for transmitting and tracking files, both among the Court’s different formations and between the Court and the ordinary courts; and establish procedures for publishing final judgments in accordance with legal provisions.

Code of ethics for judges and staff of the Court of Accounts

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The “Code of Ethics for Judges and Staff of the Court of Accounts”, adopted by the Court’s General Assembly in 2014, reflects the institution’s distinguished reputation, earned through the high ethical standards and professionalism of its judges and staff.

Its aim is for the Court to remain a model institution with strong credibility among all stakeholders, grounded in the principle of setting an example.

The Code’s adoption is therefore an essential milestone in the quality system for audit work that the Court of Accounts seeks to establish, in accordance with relevant international standards and its strategic directions. The Court’s judges and staff find in the Code a tool for professional development; their commitment to its principles gives them pride in belonging to the institution.

Resources and budget of the Court: legal framework and process for preparing the Court of Accounts’ budget

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Preparation of the Court of Accounts’ budget rests on an integrated legal framework governing the principles of public management and the preparation and execution of the State budget. It relies mainly on:

Organic Law No. 15 of 2019 of 13 February 2019 concerning the Organic Budget Law, which establishes rules for budget preparation based on performance, transparency and optimal use of resources.
Organic Law No. 41 of 2019 of 30 April 2019 concerning the Court of Accounts, which defines its judicial and audit missions and grants it financial and administrative autonomy.
The Public Accounting Code, which sets procedures for budget execution and the management of public funds.
Circulars issued for this purpose by the Office of the Head of Government, the most recent being Circular No. 9 of 11 April 2025 from the Head of Government on preparation of the draft State budget for financial year 2026, which sets the rules and priorities adopted nationally.
The Court of Accounts’ strategic plan for 2022–2026, which defines financial choices and priority programmes in line with the Court’s vision and strategic objectives.