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Although considered as largely unknown decentralization elements, French local audit institutions enable to figure out the mechanisms of social and institutional changes that characterize the administrative reform of the eighties. As seen through their institutionalization and the rather conflicting relations with local councillors, they make one realize how a control board for local management has been gradually established and strengthened with other legal or administrative authorities. Via the financial control techniques they favour, French local audit institutions also help understand why a managerial approach seems to be prevalent nowadays in the management of local communities.