Abstract
Proper public management is not possible without the existence of internal control mechanisms that ensure
reliability of the information for decision making. In Spanish local government this involves overcoming certain
weaknesses detected for the internal control and audit function. Based on some of the results obtained by the
authors through a survey over Spanish local government internal and external auditors, this work confirms the
existence of consensus regarding the need to design and implement internal control mechanisms that assure
reliable and useful information on performance and results. Upon this scenery, the paper puts forward a proposal
for the development of the internal control, using the case of Homecare Services as a model. This system pursues
to provide a useful tool for public managers, contributing to reduce the effects of the financial context over
performance, as well as to facilitate cooperation with external audit.
Keywords: Spanish local government, social care services, survey, internal control system, performance
indicators