The Corte dei conti was set up in 1862 in order to control the public administration and prevent and avoid wastes of money and unsound management.

To accomplish this important function, the Corte was established as a “magistrature” according to the will of Camillo Benso, Earl of Cavour, the prime minister of the day, who affirmed “there is the absolute need to concentrate the a priori and a posteriori audit in irremovable magistrates”

The principal guidelines of the Corte dei conti’s structure, organization and tasks were consolidated by the royal decree 12 July 1934, n.1214, still in force.

Since the Constitution of the Republic came into force (1948), deep changes took place in the organization and in the functions of the Public Administration as a whole (increasing in the number of public bodies, establishment of independent administrative authorities, privatisations of functions and public enterprises) involving, at the same time, the financial and the expenditure structures (for example the introduction of the financial law, the budget reforms in 1978, in 1988, and recently, in 1997 by law n.94). These changes also had great repercussions in the tasks of the Corte dei conti which was – and is nowadays – involved in a continuous activity to comply with an increasing request of both efficient audits and exercise of jurisdiction, in order to improve the transparency of the administration, assure the sound management of the State resources and increase the quality of services provided to citizens by public administrations.