Article 13 of the Saudi Financial Control Law

This article regulates report-based control, which, under Article 1, is a method in which the Ministry requests reports from the entity and analyzes them. It contains three provisions:

Paragraph (1): how it is applied

• The Ministry applies report-based control to the entity by requesting financial and control reports from it.
• The Ministry may also request the related documents and data for those reports.

Paragraph (2): non-government bodies

The bodies referred to in Paragraph (2) of Article 3 are the non-government bodies that receive a direct subsidy, grant or aid from the State treasury, carry out works or purchases on behalf of a government entity, or collect the State's public revenues. For these bodies:

• Control over them is limited to the report-based control method only; the other methods do not apply to them.
• Control is within the limits of the related amounts and work referred to in that paragraph; that is, within the limits of the subsidy, work or revenues that made them subject to the Law, not their entire activity.

Paragraph (3): the Implementing Regulations

The Implementing Regulations determine the provisions relating to carrying out report-based control; the article does not state them.

Paragraph (2) is of great importance to associations and companies linked to public funds: being subject to the Law does not mean comprehensive control over their work, but report-based control limited to what relates to public funds. This is consistent with Article 15, which excludes what relates to the report-based control method from the obligation to allow financial controllers to see all documents.

Anyone whose entity receives government support or contracts with a government entity and who needs to know the limits of control over it can consult a lawyer specialized in administrative cases or commercial and company matters.