According to Law 24156, on Financial Administration and Control Systems of the National Public Sector, the functions and powers of the AGN are as follows
ARTICLE 118.- Within the framework of the annual external control action program established by the Commissions indicated in article 116, the General Audit Office of the Nation shall have the following functions:
a) Supervise compliance with the legal and regulatory provisions in relation to the use of State resources, once the corresponding acts have been issued;
b) Carry out financial, legality and management audits, special examinations of the jurisdictions and entities under its control, as well as evaluations of programs, projects and operations. These works may be carried out directly or by hiring independent audit professionals;
c) Audit, by itself or through independent auditing professionals, executing units of programs and projects financed by international credit organizations in accordance with the agreements reached between the Argentine Nation and said organizations for this purpose;
d) Examine and issue reports on the financial accounting statements of the agencies of the national administration, prepared at the end of each fiscal year;
e) Control the application of resources from public credit operations and carry out the special examinations that are necessary to form an opinion on the situation of this indebtedness. For this purpose, it may request the Ministry of Economy and Public Works and Services and the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic for the information it deems necessary in relation to internal and external debt operations;
f) Audit and issue an opinion on the financial accounting statements of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic independently of any external audit that may be hired by the former;
g) Carry out special examinations of acts and contracts of economic significance, by itself or by indication of the Chambers of Congress or the Joint Parliamentary Auditing Commission of Accounts;
h) Audit and issue an opinion on the report and financial accounting statements as well as the degree of compliance with the action plans and budget of the State companies and companies;
i) Establish the suitability requirements that the independent audit professionals referred to in this article must meet and the technical standards that their work must comply with;
j) Verify that the Administration bodies maintain the patrimonial register of their public officials. To this end, every public official with the rank of minister, secretary, undersecretary, national director, highest authority of decentralized organizations or member of the board of directors of State companies and companies, is obliged to present within forty-eight (48) hours of assume his position or the sanction of this law an affidavit of assets, in accordance with the rules and requirements established by the registry, which must be updated annually and upon termination of duties.
ARTICLE 119.- For the performance of its functions, the GENERAL AUDIT OF THE NATION may:
a) Carry out any act, contract or operation that is related to its competence;
b) Require the collaboration of all public sector entities, which will be obliged to supply the data, documents, antecedents and reports related to the exercise of their functions;
c) Promote investigations of patrimonial content in the cases that correspond, communicating its conclusions to the Parliamentary Joint Auditing Commission of Accounts for the purposes of subsection f) of this article.
Further; shall:
d) Formulate control and audit criteria and establish external auditing standards, to be used by entities. Such criteria and the derived standards must meet an integrated external control and audit model that covers financial, legality and economy, efficiency and effectiveness aspects;
e) Present to the aforementioned Commission, before May 1, the report of its performance;
f) Publicize all the material indicated in the previous paragraph, with the exception of that which, by decision of the Joint Parliamentary Commission for Accounts Review, must remain reserved.
ARTICLE 120.- The National Congress may extend its external control competence to non-state public entities or those of private law in whose direction and administration the National State has responsibility, or to which it has been associated, including those to which contributions or subsidies have been granted for their installation or operation and, in general, to any entity that receives, spends, or administers public funds by virtue of a legal norm or for a public purpose.
