The idea of working out a glossary with terms and expressions used in public sector audit and other fields closely related to this latter has arisen from the numerous translation and review tasks carried out by the General Secretariat of the European Organization of Regional External Public Finance Audit Institutions (EURORAI) throughout its more than ten years of activity. On the suggestion of the Secretary General of the Association the Management Committee of EURORAI entrusted the General Secretariat with the task of working out a draft of a glossary of these characteristics in collaboration with some member institutions.

If we take into account the increasing number of activities organized by EURORAI every year in which participate more and more a larger number of members and staff at the service of member institutions of the Association (and other observers), the knowledge of the terminology, legal systems and administrative structures of the different countries involved becomes something essential.

The General Secretariat hopes that this glossary becomes a useful tool to get to know more deeply the different systems of auditing the public sector, legal systems and administrative structures. The General Secretariat also hopes that with the help of this work professionals of public sector audit may understand each other better. At the same time it is expected that this preliminary draft can be improved, and even enlarged, through the suggestions and comments of the readers. And if the readers wish so, the work can also be arranged by specialized fields.

The content of the glossary follows an alphabetical order in the four official languages of EURORAI: English, German, French, and Spanish. In addition to translations, this preliminary draft also includes –when considered necessary and convenient- definitions, explanations and expressions. Those expressions which appear with (UK), (D), (F) or (E) are used exclusively in German, French, Spanish or English, respectively. The translation of these terms in the other languages have mainly an explanatory nature.

So as to attain a minimum basis of agreement in some cases it has been necessary to make difficult, sometimes even arbitrary choices, between different translation proposals, which are all of them equally acceptable. The reader should bear in mind that this is a first draft which intends to establish a first link between languages, the use of them and the different systems in the sphere of public sector audit and other fields closely related to it (such as public sector budgeting and accounting).

The General Secretariat would like to thank all those people who have collaborated in this difficult task with their expertise, devotion and kindness.