Abstract. This work attempts a synthetic approach of the evolution of institutional organization and the exercise of public financial audit in Romania, emphasizing on historical, as well as on modern elements. Recent changes, based, obviously, on legal regulations, aim at implementing the types of audit specific to the audit supreme institutions and founded on the basis of their own external public audit standards, adopted according to the INTOSAI audit standards, the European guidelines for their application and other standards relevant to the public sector, elaborated by IFAC and accepted by the European Union. The finding of the accounts in order is followed by issuing of a conformity certificate for the audited entity.

Keywords: Audit Office; external public control; special jurisdiction; financial audit; preventive and subsequent financial control; performance audit.