Article 2 of the Saudi Financial Control Law

This Article states the aims the Financial Control Law seeks to achieve, which are five:

1. Strengthening responsibility, integrity, and transparency in dealing with public funds.
2. Organizing the procedures related to financial control.
3. Achieving effective control, and helping the entity strengthen its internal control systems.
4. Strengthening control over procedures and operations with a financial impact in the entity, in accordance with laws, regulations, and instructions.
5. Organizing the roles and their integration between the Ministry and the oversight bodies.

Note in the third objective that the Law does not view control only as an inspection tool, but as a tool to help the entity develop its internal control systems, which according to Article 1 are the policies and procedures the entity carries out to ensure achievement of its strategic objectives and provide reasonable assurance regarding operational efficiency, financial reliability, and compliance with laws.

The fifth objective explains what appears in the definition of financial control in Article 1, that it does not extend to the competences of the oversight bodies, namely the General Court of Audit, the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, and other bodies competent in oversight of public funds. The Law aims for the roles of the Ministry of Finance to integrate with the roles of these bodies and not to overlap.

These objectives are valuable for understanding and interpreting the rest of the Law's articles. They are followed by Article 3, which specifies the entities to which the Law applies. Anyone working in an entity subject to the Law who needs to understand its effect may consult a lawyer specializing in administrative matters.