During the last two decades, France introduced a series of far-reaching reforms intended to bring about greater transparency towards Parliament, autonomy and flexibility to public managers, and rigor in to fiscal policy making.

The French system of public accounts continues to function at its current state with little doubt. The gap between information provided on the one hand, and users’ vague expectations on the other however, is insistent and continues to widen. At its current state, the public accounts system is...