Article 6 of the Saudi Financial Control Law

After Article 5 set the four control methods (direct, self, digital, and report-based), this Article explains who chooses the method applied and how.

Paragraph (1): determining and changing the method

• The power belongs to the Minister, who according to Article 1 is the Minister of Finance, or his delegate.
• The power covers both determining the method at the outset and changing it later; the method applied to a government entity is not necessarily fixed.
• The Implementing Regulations set out the criteria for determining the control method, and the Article does not state these criteria.

Paragraph (2): combining methods

• More than one control method may be combined for the government entity.
• This is in accordance with the controls and provisions set out in the Law and the Implementing Regulations.

Note that the Article speaks specifically of the government entity. As for the non-government entities mentioned in Article 3, such as those that receive direct support from the State treasury, they have a separate rule elsewhere in the Law.

The practical effect is that a government entity may move from one method to another according to what the Minister decides under the criteria of the Implementing Regulations. Among this is what Article 9 provides, that the Ministry evaluates the efficiency of the entity's internal control systems for the purpose of applying self-control, and that self-control may be applied partially or fully according to the results of this evaluation.

It is followed by Article 7, which begins the provisions on direct control. Anyone working in a government entity who needs to understand the effect of a change in the control method applied to it may consult a lawyer specializing in administrative matters.