The establishment of the Secretariat General of Government was clearly a marking phase in the history of Tunisia and particularly its administrative system during the Protectorate. Founded in 1883 and placed under the direct supervision of the Secretary General of Government, a senior French civil servant, this institution was abolished in 1922 before being re-established in 1933. The role of this body consisted in supervising the action of the different mechanics of the Tunisian administration.

As such, it presided over many services. These were the Service for the Control of the Native population Affairs, the Public Security Service, the Service for the General Inspection of Administrative Departments, the Service for the Control of Expenditure, the Staff and Regency Civil Administrations Service, the Legal Service and the Legislation service.

The various activities undertaken by these services in addition to those generated by the Secretariat General of Government resulted in the “SG” fonds. It comprises several types of records such as legislative texts, administrative correspondences, brochures, petitions… etc. Their volume is estimated at about 167.5 linear metres (1675 archives boxes).

The processing of this fonds made it possible to distinguish 15 sub-series ranging from SG1 to SG15. As indicated below, each series corresponds to each producing service :

Series “SG” records are extremely important. Completed by the information provided by the other series such as series “E”, they represent a useful source for researchers to undertake studies on widely varied themes in connection with the contemporary history of Tunisia.