Careers

1. Administrateur civil
2. High-level administrative official of the City of Paris
3. Deputy Inspector in the General Inspectorate of Finance
4. Deputy Inspector in the General Inspectorate of the Administration
5. Deputy Inspector of Social Affairs
6. Auditeur at the Council of State
7. Counselor at an administrative court or administrative court of appeals
8. Auditeur at the Court of Accounts
9. Counselor at a regional chamber of the Court of Accounts
10. Staff director for a prefect or sub-prefect of a district within the département
11. Foreign Service Officer, with a first assignment to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Formulation of government policies

Administrateur civil

Administrateurs civils serve in all ministries. The majority of the positions offered to students graduating from ENA form part of this category of the civil service (corps).

Functions and responsibilities: Work in the various ministries or government agencies to formulate government policies, assure their implementation, and evaluate their results, to lead administrative teams, ensuring the coherence of government actions, and carry out representational functions.

The areas of action handled by each ministry or central government agency are extremely varied. Each administration hasitsspecific characteristics and a choice assumes a marked interest in the area of activity chosen.

High-level administrative official of the City of Paris

This body of civil servants (corps) provides management staff to the City of Paris.

Functions and responsibilities: Implement decisions of the municipal authorities; prepare draft texts and instructions. At times, coordinate work and manage personnel.

Inspection and management control functions

Deputy Inspector in the General Inspectorate of Finance

The IGF, the General Inspectorate of Finance is under the authority of the Minister of the Economy and Finance. It has a confirmed interministerial function in that assignments contribute to the rigorous and efficient management of public funds and the modernization of the administration.

The duties of a Deputy Inspector are to inspect, check and monitor the financial and administrative aspects of government services, including making surveys, audits and evaluations of government policies.

Deputy Inspector in the General Inspectorate of the Administration

The IGA, General Inspectorate of the Administration, has "a general mission of management control, audit,study and advice to both the central and decentralized services of the Ministry of the Interior." This includes "all personnel, services, establishments, institutions and organizations under the control of the prefects." The IGA also undertakes missions to evaluate government policies, as well as taking responsibilities for training and international cooperation.

Deputy Inspector of Social Affairs

The IGAS, or the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs, was created in 1967 and is hence the newest of the three interministerial general inspectorates. Besides the usual monitoring function, there are missions involving audits, surveys and support and evaluation of government policies, and missions of comparative administration abroad.

Jurisdictional bodies

Auditeur at the Council of State

Functions and responsibilities: Auditeurs second class at the Council of State first serve as rapporteurs in the litigation section. They are present in the pre-trial investigation and in the determination of a decision; for each case, they provide a memorandum and a draft decision. Each auditeur usually handles about eighty cases a year. Auditeurs may also be called on for study missions or to serve as rapporteurs for different agencies or administrations.

During their first two years, new auditeurs are assigned cases pertaining to a specialized administrative agency, such as the central social welfare commission (Commission Centrale d’Aide Sociale), a jurisdictional body that hears appeals on contested decisions of social affairs commissions in the départements.

After three years as arapporteur, auditeurs are assigned to examining draft legislation and decrees submitted by the government to the Council for its legal advice. They are responsible for identifying legal difficulties that might arise, for drafting the legislation/regulation itself, and defending the text to the administrative section or a general meeting of the Council itself. They may also be named deputy secretary-general for the management aspects of the Council, or as government representative to the Council (Commissaire du Gouvernement) on a specific case.

Counselor at an administrative court or administrative court of appeals

Functions and responsibilities: A counselor at an administrative court or administrative court of appeals hears cases involving disputes on points of administrative law between the administration and individuals or entities. They carry out the following functions, both in Paris and in the rest of the country:

Counselor-rapporteur: investigate the entire case,draft a decision, and inform the judges of the court about the factual and legal aspects of the case;

Government representative (Commissaire du Gouvernement): he gives his view on the sense of the decision to be taken and the interpretation to be given to a provision of the law.

A counselor at an administrative court or administrative court of appeals may be asked to give an opinion on questions posed to them by the prefect of a département within the court’s jurisdiction or to carry out specific missions. Theypreside over or take part in many administrative commissions, such as the commission on direct taxation of a département, or in counting votes at elections.

Auditeur at the Court of Accounts

Functions and responsibilities: The responsibility of the Court of Accounts is to ensure the transparency in the use of public funds, informing the Parliament, the government and the citizens.

Auditeurs need to become familiar with all the different types of audits that are the specific responsibility of the Court of Accounts: management audits, audits of public-sector companies, legal audits.

Once named, each new auditeur is assigned a mentor, who uses his or her experience to help the new arrival succeed in his first audits. In exercising their audit missions, auditeurs are given broad autonomy both in investigating cases and in drafting reports with the Court’s conclusions. Work is organized under the principlesofcollegiality and argument – counter argument, with a view to eliminating errors of law, fact or evaluation in the documents the Court of Accounts transmits to the competent authorities.

Besides serving as rapporteur, during theircareer at the Court magistrates may serve as advocate-general (prosecution) at the Court, or in management functions inthe general secretariat of the Court.

Counselor at a regional chamber of the Court of Accounts

Functions and responsibilities: Counselors at a regional chamber of the Court of Accounts participate in ruling on the accounts of municipalities, départements and regions, as well as other local government agencies. They review the management of these local authorities and institutions, as well as those of joint public-private companies and organizations that receive subsidies from local authorities and institutions within the chamber’s area of competence. They also participate in the auditof budgets of these local authorities and institutions.

In the course of their career, these magistrates may also serve as government representatives (Commisssaire du gouvernement) at the chamber.

Representing the State in France's regions and départements

Staff director for a prefect or sub-prefect of a district within the département

Prefectoral positions, that is to say positions in the territorial administration under the Ministry of the Interior, are filled through secondment of officials from the ministerial higher civil service (Administrateurs civils).

Functions and responsibilities:

• Assist the prefect: under his authority, assure that laws and regulations are applied and implement directives of the government.
• Represent the State: assure the safety and security of persons and property, seek improvements in public service (reception of visitors at government offices, providing citizens with needed documents, promotion of new technologies, etc.), assure respect for the rule oflaw, and work for social integration and against exclusion.
• Assure the administration of the territory for which he or she is responsible and promote its economic development.
• Personal qualities required: versatility, an aptitude for crisis management, a sense of human relations.

Representing France abroad

Foreign Service Officer, with a first assignment to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The first two years of service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are spent at headquarters, either in Paris or Nantes (headquarters for consular services).

Functions and responsibilities: Represent the State in diplomatic, consular and cultural functions, either at the ministry or abroad, including: drafting memoranda and reports on political, economic, cultural and legal questions, administrative and financial management of a diplomatic post, leading an economic assistance, cultural or consular service, human resources management and negotiation.