The control of public finances in the Democratic Republic of Congo dates back to the creation of the Independent State of Congo in 1885.

Indeed, the sovereign King had in article 3 of his Decree of the King of October 6, 1885 had stipulated that "the functions of controller of the accounts could be conferred by the Governor General in Congo, on agents of the State who will be charged, in this capacity, to inspect from time to time the books and the cash of the accounting officers according to the instructions which will be traced to them by the director of finances”.

         In my opinion, although it concerns the functions of accounting controller, there is reason to argue that the distant roots of the General Inspectorate of Finance in our country date back to 1885. Indeed, through this provision, certain aspects of the control exercised by the IGF are noted, in particular the punctual nature, the independence of the controller, the supervision of the Governor General (President of the Republic) over the controllers.

The stakeholders in public finance were the Secretary of State for Finance, the Treasurer General who operated in Europe all the receipts and all the payments that had to be made there on behalf of the State, the Director (Minister) of Finance and Accounting Officers in Africa, responsible for the collection of State funds and expenditure on the basis of funds sent to them by the Treasurer General.

The General Inspectorate was created on December 18, 1951 by the Royal Decree regulating public accounting. Indeed, in its articles 56 to 58, this decree speaks of the inspectors of finances, their supervision, their mission and the incompatibilities of their function:

Art 56: The Inspectors of Finance report directly to the General Government.

Art 57: Their mission is to ensure the application of the main accounting principles and the standardization of working methods in the scheduling centres.

Art 58: The function of finance inspector is incompatible with that of authorizing officer-treasurer, controller or accountant.

It should be noted that this royal decree determines as local stakeholders in public finance the Minister of Colonies, credit managers, credit sub-manager, authorizing officers-treasurers, colonial cashier and accountants.

Ordinance of the Governor General n° 34/242 of 10/07/52 regulating the public accounts of the Colony constitutes in fact the methods of application of the Royal Decree of 18 December 1951. In its articles 117 to 120 , it defines the procedures for exercising the function of financial inspector. According to article 117 of this Ordinance, the Inspector of Finance, whose mission is above all educational, examines the reports drawn up by the financial controllers.