In today's information and knowledge management era, and in a scenario of electronic administration, the Web Portals of the higher and executive Organs of the State Administration, duly included in the portal of the corresponding Ministry and in that of the Public Administrations, have become an obligatory channel for routing all the information the Organ should offer to the Information Society, and, on the other, administrative procedures and services, both for the completion of formalities and the follow-up thereof.
Moreover, this flow of information to be processed through Web Portals is growing at breakneck speed as a result of the convergence of several determining factors: the citizens' demand for transparent management by the Public Administrations, which is inherent in democratic systems; the globalisation fostered by the Internet phenomenon and the growing availability of digitised information and the capacity to manage it, which is characteristic of the Digital Society we live in.
The importance of this service is particularly evident in the sphere of the Secretariat of State for Budgets and Expenditure at the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service because the nature of its functions means that the information generated and the associated services are particularly important to sectors as wide-ranging as business, universities, and national and international public administrations and institutions, as well as the public at large.
The State Secretariat for Budget and Expenditure is the senior-level body reporting to the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service that directs and coordinates activities relating to the planning, programming and budgeting of the public sector and its personnel costs, and to the design, planning and performance of actions concerning EU funds and regional incentives, particularly the management of funds for regional economic policy and the monitoring and management of Spain's participation in the EU budget.
The Government Comptroller's Office is attached to the State Secretariat for Budget and Expenditure with the status of Under-secretariat and is responsible for internal oversight, through performance of the comptroller and financial monitoring functions, the monitoring and oversight of subsidies and public aid, actions arising from the monitoring of EU funds with regard to the exercise of audit authority functions in programmes where the IGAE has such status, management of the public accounting system, the drafting of public-sector economic accounts and the planning, design and execution of the IT system of the Secretariat of State for Budgets and Expenditure.
Since 1997 a Web Portal has been available where citizens will find a broad range of information and services, expanded daily with a view to bringing budget Administration closer to the citizens and to the other Organs of the Public Administrations.