6. Conclusions
Organizations need internal control in order to preserve their interests and objectives. In the public sphere, these
mechanisms are even more necessary due to the coexistence of political and technical agents in the functions of
planning and management, to the duty of accountability and, above all, to the citizens demand of law compliance
and value for money in public services delivery.
Proper public management is not possible without the existence of internal control mechanisms that ensure
information reliability for decision making. Its implementation implies overcoming certain weaknesses detected
in the Spanish local government internal control function, led by the internal auditor or interventor. In particular,
the control is focused on legality and probity, at the expense of value for money, and little cooperation is
observed between internal and external audit, especially in the field of economy, efficiency and efficacy.
Based on this scenario, the presented paper shows the existence of consensus among those responsible for the
control over the Spanish local government, both internal and external, on the need of designing and
implementing internal control mechanisms that generate reliable and useful information on performance and
results. It also highlights the advantages of developing self-assessments and performance indicators and the
demand for clearing up the internal auditors responsibilities in these areas.