The basic function of the state is to provide security to its citizens. The concept of security encompasses various forms such as legal, psychological, and social security. However, the common starting point is the need for a group of individuals to create mechanisms that will guarantee their physical survival. Protection from natural disasters and fires is present as an element of public safety since the emergence of the first civilizations. Different forms of government provide for different forms of public safety, as well as the methods by which the state provides them. The state, to guarantee the citizens a certain service for the provision of which a public interest exists, takes over the function of resource allocation by creating an offer through the mechanism of the public sector. In Croatia, the provision of services of general interest, in the case when they are not performed for profit, is entrusted to state-run non-profit organizations. The financial operations of state-run non-profit organizations are regulated by the public sector accounting rules as a separate accounting system. The key elements of public control over the purposefulness of public funds management are the audit procedures carried out by the State Audit Office on budget users. The paper analyses the specifics of the budget accounting on the example of the audit of the Public Fire Brigade of the City of Zagreb as a budget user of the City of Zagreb. The paper also analyses how auditing in the state sector can affect the more efficient management of funds from public sources and thus enable a higher level of efficiency of public administration in the provision of services of public interest such as firefighting.