Article 4 of the Saudi Financial Control Law

This Article sets out what the Ministry of Finance is competent to do in applying the Law, with an important limit: that this be without prejudice to the competences of the relevant bodies. Its competences are five:

1. Applying and following up financial control in the entity.
2. Approving the controls, policies, and procedures, manual and automated, for applying financial control.
3. Proposing amendments to the laws, regulations, and instructions related to internal control systems issued by the entity, and completing what is required for them by law. The Ministry's role here is to propose, then complete what is required according to the legal procedures.
4. Setting the necessary corrective actions with the entity, and determining their priority. Corrective actions, according to Article 1, are action plans to address observations and correct violations or take what is needed to approve them. The words "with the entity" show that setting them is joint work.
5. Preparing reports for the entity on the most important observations, if any, related to the application of the provisions of the Law and the Implementing Regulations.

The Article refers to the Implementing Regulations to specify the procedures needed to prepare the reports and the procedures for notifying the entity of them, and does not state their details.

The "entity" meant here is what Article 3 specifies, namely government entities and non-government entities that receive direct support from the State treasury, carry out works on behalf of a government entity, or collect public revenues.

The limit "without prejudice to the competences of the relevant bodies" is consistent with the definition of financial control in Article 1 as not extending to the competences of the oversight bodies. It is followed by Article 5, which sets the methods by which financial control is applied. Anyone working in an entity that has received a report of observations from the Ministry and who needs to understand its obligations may consult a lawyer specializing in administrative matters.