The term control must be understood in three different contexts: in the supervision of the electoral process, in the legal sphere and in the sphere of taxes. As a generic concept, the idea of control expresses the will to verify an activity. The oversight function is exercised by an organism, normally public, with the purpose of guaranteeing the fulfillment of some laws.
Electoral process
In some countries there are supervisors in the election processes of the people's representatives. Who exercises this type of functions is the table prosecutor or the attorney general. Both supervisory figures ensure that the electoral process is clean, transparent and in accordance with what the law establishes. The action they carry out is inspection, that is, control. In their control action, the table prosecutor and the general must guarantee that the entire electoral process is respected and runs normally.
The power of the state attorney
The state has the power to impose compliance with the obligations that affect citizens, private entities and public organizations. This means that the state must maintain legality, for which it relies on prosecutors. The figure of the prosecutor is part of the public prosecutor's office as a section of the judiciary. The functions of the public prosecutor's office are, basically, the following: to ensure the proper functioning of justice, to guarantee that public institutions comply with the law and to initiate the civil or criminal actions necessary to ensure that the legal framework in force is respected. The set of actions of the public prosecutor's office receives the name of inspection.
Tax inspection
The payment of taxes is supervised by some type of public body (for example, in Spain it is called the Tax Agency). For taxpayers to comply with their obligations, these bodies must carry out a control, an examination. In general, the different tax examination systems work from the concept of fiscal year, the annual period in which taxpayers must comply with their commitments in paying taxes.
The tax inspection action involves control, inspection and investigation tasks. In this sense, the concept of tax examination is associated with aspects of a different nature: audits, rights and obligations of taxpayers, bureaucratic issues, the fight against tax evasion and a long etcetera.
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