As Switzerland’s supreme independent financial supervisory body, the Federal Audit Office has a clear mission to ensure transparency as well as the responsible use of taxpayer money. This is relevant to Swiss Abroad.
The Federal Audit Office (SFAO), Switzerland’s supreme independent financial supervisory body, monitors how the federal government handles taxpayer money. It assesses whether public funds are being used suitably and economically, and is responsible for the early identification of problems and risks. In its reports, the SFAO provides recommendations for improving efficiency and effectiveness. Almost all its reports to parliament and the Federal Council are publicly accessible, giving taxpayers an insight into how their money is being used. This openness is intended to help bolster public trust in state institutions.
Since its establishment in 1877, the SFAO has continued to take on new responsibilities while remaining true to its values.
The SFAO currently has around 130 employees as well as a budget of some 34 million Swiss francs.
Since its establishment in 1877, the SFAO has continued to take on new responsibilities while remaining true to its values. For example, it has been acting as a port of call for whistleblowers since 2011. Federal employees and private individuals can report suspected irregularities, corruption or other unlawful acts anonymously and securely to the SFAO.
Since 2022, the SFAO has also been responsible for implementing new transparency rules on political funding. Political parties and stakeholders must disclose details of their funding to the SFAO, which verifies and publishes this information in order to enhance the integrity of political funding and strengthen trust in the political system.
The SFAO conducts over 150 audits in a wide variety of areas every year. Many of these audits go far beyond the financial scope. Here is a selection of audits that may be of particular interest to Swiss living abroad.
An effective network of Swiss representations is vital to providing emergency support to any Swiss – expatriate or otherwise – experiencing difficulty abroad. In 2022, the SFAO audited the consular services of Swiss representations abroad. Its findings show that the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has been able to improve the quality of its services in recent years.
However, direct inquiries have put an immense strain on consular services. The FDFA’s online desk, which was designed to facilitate communication between Swiss Abroad and Swiss representations, has hardly been used due to its lack of user-friendliness. Files related to Swiss Abroad were still being kept on paper.
The SFAO has therefore recommended that more be done to introduce digital technology. In response, the FDFA has expanded and extended its online services. All files related to Swiss Abroad are expected to go online by the end of 2025. The SFAO will then check what improvements have actually been implemented.
The Central Compensation Office (CCO) currently pays out around one million old-age and survivors’ insurance (OASI) and disability insurance (DI) pensions worth a total of 7.8 billion francs to people abroad every year. In 2021, the SFAO audited the effectiveness of the CCO’s supervisory measures to ensure that pensions are paid out solely to entitled parties. Naturally, it is not possible to implement precisely the same controls abroad to prevent insurance fraud. Every year, pensioners who live abroad provide notarised confirmation that they are still alive. Many still send these confirmations by post.
Curbing bank margins to safeguard pension payments
According to the SFAO audit, the CCO’s controls fulfil their purpose but need to be modernised. The CCO was able to recover incorrect pension payments worth around 74 million francs in 2020. Nevertheless, the SFAO identified room for improvement and recommended that the CCO carry out more efficient checks and use data better. There also needs to be increased use of digital platforms to identify discrepancies more effectively. Furthermore, Swiss pensioners abroad should not have to record their details on more than one system. The CCO has renegotiated its agreements with the banks that execute pension payments abroad. These agreements came into force on 1 January 2025. The SFAO had found that the banks’ margins were too high, resulting in lower pension payments.
Since Switzerland signed the Schengen agreement with the EU, the nature of border controls has fundamentally changed – moving away from systematic controls at national borders in favour of greater mobility. This is of benefit to many travellers as well as the half a million Swiss Abroad in Europe. To effectively combat global risks like organised crime, terrorism and illegal migration, the EU and Switzerland advocate tighter controls on the Schengen area’s external borders.
The FDFA has expanded its online services in response to an SFAO recommendation.
In 2024, the SFAO analysed the implementation of measures to protect the external Schengen borders at Swiss airports. It found that the federal structure consisting of eight different supervisory authorities at Confederation and cantonal level made it harder to manage the external borders in a uniform manner. No one, not even the State Secretariat for Migration, had authority to manage the entire system. This is why important improvements involving all stakeholders were carried out quite slowly. The SFAO called for greater accountability on the part of the responsible authorities, recommending that they conduct a systematic review. At a later juncture, it will review whether its recommendations have been implemented.
Effective controls along with transparency and the ability to change are key elements of a functioning state. The SFAO hopes to contribute to a well-managed, future-proof Federal Administration by identifying weaknesses, suggesting improvements and supervising the implementation of recommendations.
Comments