DECISION No OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS LAYING DOWN THE INTERNAL RULES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET

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1 EBPonEHCKA CMETHA naliata TRIBUNAL DE CUENTAS EUROPEO EVROPSKY UtETNi DVUR DEN EUROPtEISKE REVISIONSRET EUROpAISCHER RECHNUNGSHOF EUROOPA KONTROLLIKODA EYPOnAIKO EAErKT!KO 1:YNEl1PIO EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS COUR DES COMPTES EUROPEENNE CUIRT INIUCH6IRi NA HEORPA CORTE DEI CONT! EUROPEA EIROPAS REVIZIJAS PALATA EUROPOS AUDITa ROMAI EUR6PAI SZAMVEV6sZEK IL-QORTI EWROPEA TA' L-AWDITURI EUROPESE REKENKAMER EUROPEJSKI TRYBUNAL OBRACHUNKOWY TRIBUNAL DE CONTAS EUROPEU CURTEA DE CONTURI EUROPEANA EUR6pSKY DVOR AUDiTOROV EVROPSKO RAtUNSKO SODIStE EUROOPAN T!LINTARKASTUSTUOMIOISTUIN EUROPEISKA REVISIONSRA TTEN DFS ENO 1-13PP D-OR.doc DECISION No OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS LAYING DOWN THE INTERNAL RULES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET THE EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No of the European Parliament and of the Council of25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 1, and in particular Articles 56 and 65 thereof, Having regard to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012 of29 October 2012 on the Rules of Application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union 2, and in particular Article 47 thereof, Having regard to the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors of 11 March , in particular Article 15 thereof, and to Decision No of 11 March 2010 laying down the rules for implementing the Rules of Procedure, in particular Article 38 of that Decision, Having regard to the deliberations of the Court at its meeting of27 June 2013, Whereas, following the entry into force of the new Financial Regulation and its Rules of Application on 1 January 2013, it has been deemed appropriate to make a number of amendments and clarifications to the internal rules for the implementation of the budget laid down in Decision No of the Court of Auditors of 19 January 2012 adopted at its meeting of 12 January 2012 and as last amended on 16 February 2012, concerning the internal rules for the implementation of the budget, OJ L 298, , p OJ L 362, , p. 1. OJ L 103, , p. 1.

2 HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: TITLE I: GENERAL PRINCIPLES Article 1 Introduction The following provisions, including the annexes to this decision, specify the rules governing the implementation of the budget by the Court's services. Any decision by the Court of Auditors amending the powers covered by the provisions of these internal rules shall take immediate effect, notwithstanding formal changes to these rules. Article 2 Internal rules and other applicable procedures These internal rules shall be without prejudice to the procedures laid down by the Treaties or acts adopted by virtue of the Treaties determining the conduct of operations connected with the implementation of the budget, in particular the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (hereinafter "the Financial Regulation") and the Regulation laying down detailed rules for the implementation of the Financial Regulation (hereinafter "Rules of Application"). TITLE 11: ORGANISATIONAL PROVISIONS Article 3 Competent authorising officers (Articles 65(1) and 66(1) of the Financial Regulation; Articles 8(3) and 15(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors; Articles 8 and 36 of the rules for implementing the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors; Article 13a of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations) 3.1 In accordance with Articles 65(1) and 66(1) of the Financial Regulation and with Article 15(1) of the Court's Rules of Procedure, the powers of authorising officer responsible for implementing revenue and expenditure shall be exercised by the Members of the Court and as authorising officer by delegation, by the Secretary-General. 3.2 As regards the commitment, validation and authorisation of expenditure the allocation of responsibilities is defined in Annex I of this Decision. 3.3 The authorising officer for revenue shall be the authorising officer for expenditure of the same nature or the Secretary-General if the expenditure does not fall within any authorising officer's area of responsibility. 3.4 The Secretary-General may modify Annex I to take account of changes to the budgetary nomenclature, provided that such changes do not lead to changes in the allocation of responsibilities. 2

3 3.5 Where a Member of the Court of Auditors is unable to be present or is absent for more than four consecutive days, he shall be replaced according to the arrangements laid down below. Transfers of authorising officer powers from one Member to another shall be made in the following cases: a) if the President of the Court of Auditors is absent or unable to be present, authorising officer powers shall be transferred to the Member responsible for acting as his replacement pursuant to Article 8(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors; b)if another Member of the Court of Auditors is absent or unable to be present, authorising officer powers shall be transferred in accordance with Article 8 of the rules for implementing the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors. This designation shall be duly notified by the authorising officer concerned to any person replacing him, to the Internal Auditor and to the Accounting Officer. 3.6 Delegations and sub-delegations shall remain valid during the period of replacement of the authorising officer who granted them, unless otherwise decided by the replacement authorising officer. 3.7 If the Secretary-General is absent or unavailable the powers of authorising officer by delegation shall be conferred in accordance with Article 36 of the rules for implementing the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors. 3.8 As regards the reimbursement of mission expenses, the Court of Auditors shall adopt the general implementing provisions pursuant to Article 13a of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations. These provisions require that a Guide to Missions containing instructions and practical advice necessary to ensure the smooth progress of missions be drawn up and brought to the attention of staff. The Guide and any subsequent amendments arising from a revision of the general implementing provisions shall be adopted by the Court. Technical revisions of the Guide that are not related to a change in the general implementing provisions shall be adopted by the Secretary-General. Article 4 Delegation, subdelegation and cross subdelegation of the duties of authorising officers (Article 65(3-5,7) of the Financial Regulation; Article 47 of the Rules of Application) 4.1 The responsibilities referred to in Annex I of this Decision may be further delegated. The arrangements governing delegations of the authorising officers' duties shall be determined as follows: a) delegations; b) subdelegations; c) cross subdelegations. 4.2 Delegations shall be granted by authorising officers to authorising officers by delegation. Subdelegations and cross sub delegations shall be granted by authorising officers by delegation to authorising officers by subdelegation. In the interest of sound budget implementation, the authorising officer by subdelegation may further delegate the management of budget lines. 3

4 4.3 Delegations may be given within the following limits: the power to sign a proposal for commitment, a legal commitment or recovery order to one or more members of staff in function group AD within a service for which the authorising officer granting the delegation is responsible; the power to validate or authorise expenditure or to issue a debit note to one or more members of staff in function group AD or AST, grades 3-11, within a service for which the authorising officer granting the delegation is responsible. 4.4 An authorising officer by delegation may only subdelegate his powers if the instrument of delegation expressly allows him to do so. Subdelegations may only be granted within the limits of the delegation decisions. 4.5 Decisions on exceptions may not be delegated. The President, the Members and the Secretary General of the Court shall take the decision on exceptions in accordance with the allocation of powers stipulated in Annex I of this Decision In addition, for Audit Chambers with regard to: a) missions (the power to sign travel orders and statements of mission expenses), b )professional training / conferences, c) absences (annual leave and all other absences), the power of the authorising officer shall be delegated automatically to the Director(s) of the Audit Chamber concerned who in turn may further delegate these powers to Heads of Unit and their in absence to Private Office heads and attaches. For the Heads of Unit and the staff allocated to the Directorates, missions, professional trainings / conferences and absences, the power of the authorising officer is automatically delegated to the Director(s) of the Chamber concerned and in hislher absence to the Private Office heads and attaches. For the Directors and for the Members' Private Office missions, professional trainings / conferences and absences, the power of the authorising officer is automatically delegated to Private Office heads and attaches. The above automatic delegations do not apply when the exercise of such powers concerns them personally. The above automatic delegations can be revoked at any time by the delegating officer the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors may delegate his powers (to sign commitments of expenditure, travel orders, statements of mission expenses and payment orders and to commit and authorise advances on mission expenses) to one or more persons in function group AD. Without prejudice to Article 4.3., the power of the Secretary-General to sign payment orders is automatically delegated to one or more persons in function group AD in the Missions Office, to the Head of Unit and the Director responsible for the Missions Office or to one or more persons in function group AD designated by a delegation decision of the Director responsible for the Mission Office. Such persons may not commit, validate or authorise 4

5 expenditure incurred by their own travel arrangements while on official business. These delegations shall not apply to missions undertaken by those to whom the sub-delegation has been granted On the basis of a proposal from the Secretary-General, the Court shall decide on the annual allocation of mission appropriations to the Chambers, the Secretariat-General, and the Presidency. Within the aforesaid organisational entities, the competent authority shall decide how appropriations are to be allocated to tasks and to be managed The same procedure shall apply by analogy to the mission appropriations for Members. The President shall decide on adjustments during the financial year While awaiting these decisions, the Accounting Officer shall make a provisional allocation of appropriations in November of the preceding year in accordance with the Rules for the application of provisional twelfths The Director of Finance and Support may authorise any necessary provisional reallocations of mission appropriations. These provisional reallocations shall be done in close cooperation with the competent authority of the organisational entities concerned. The Court shall decide on the final annual allocation of mission appropriations. Article 5 Provisions common to instruments of delegation, subdelegation and cross subdelegation of the duty of authorising officer (Article 65(3-5,7), Article 71 (1, 3) and Article 80(2) of the Financial Regulation; Articles 46,47 and 91 of the Rules of Application) 5.1 Instruments of delegation, subdelegation and cross subdelegation shall be drawn up in writing. The decision shall be dated and signed by the authorising officer responsible and shall show: a) the surname and forename of the authorising officer by delegation; b)the budget implementation measures concerned; c) the budget articles and items concerned; d) acceptance by the authorising officer by delegation. The authorising officer by delegation shall be deemed to have accepted the delegation when he exercises the powers specified in the instrument of delegation; e) if necessary, the maximum amount authorised per operation and/or the period of the subdelegation or the cross subdelegation. 5.2 With regard to the power to waive recovery of an established amount receivable, the following shall apply: where the amount to be waived is greater than or equal to EUR and below the threshold mentioned in Article 91(4)(b) of the Rules of Application, the decision to waive recovery of an established amount receivable shall be the responsibility of the Secretary General following consultation with the Accounting Officer; 5

6 where the amount to be waived is less than EUR, the decision to waive recovery of an established amount receivable shall be the responsibility of a (sub)delegated authorising officer following consultation with the Accounting Officer Regarding the principle of proportionality, the waiver must first cover the recovery of costs payable by the debtor, then any late payment interest, then any penalties which may have been imposed and finally, only in the last instance, the principal debt. 5.3 Any (sub)delegation shall, before it takes effect, be communicated by the delegating authorising officer to the Secretariat of the Court, which shall circulate it to the Accounting Officer and the Internal Auditor. The Accounting Officer shall draw up a table summarising delegations and keep the table updated. Where the delegation concerns mission expenses, the Secretariat of the Court shall also forward a copy to the Missions Office. Any cancellation of a (sub)delegation shall, before it takes effect, be communicated to the same persons. 5.4 The delegating authorising officer may, at any time - without amending the instrument of (sub)delegation - continue to exercise the (sub)delegated power either on his own initiative or at the request of the authorising officer by delegation. 5.5 In the event that an authorising officer who has delegated duties is replaced, the existing (sub )delegations shall remain in force until new (sub )delegations have, if necessary, been made. 5.6 When a delegation ends, the outgoing authorising officer by delegation shall draw up for the attention of the delegating authorising officer and, where relevant, of his successor, a hand-over report showing the state of the current files. 5.7 (Sub)delegations shall end when the delegate or subdelegate ceases to perform his duties. TITLE Ill: ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BUDGET Article 6 The Court's annual estimate of its revenue and expenditure (Articles 36, 49 and 50 of the Financial Regulation; Article 64 of the Court's Rules for implementing the Rules of Procedure) The Secretary-General shall draw up the Court's annual estimate of its revenue and expenditure and shall send it to the Administrative Committee. The Administrative Committee shall examine the annual estimate of revenue and expenditure and send it to the Court for adoption. The annual estimate shall be sent to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union by 31 March. 6

7 TITLE IV: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET Article 7 Signatures (Article 93 of the Financial Regulation) 7.1 Each of the parties involved in the drafting, control and registration of operations to establish and recover revenue or to commit swns and make payments shall sign and date their involvement. 7.2 The signature of the authorising officer on the accounting docwnent shall confirm the operation and show the Accounting Officer that the docwnent may be registered in the institution's official accounts. The responsible authorising officer should electronically validate the operation in the IT system. Article 8 Building projects (Article 203 of the Financial Regulation) The President shall present to the European Parliament and the Council any building project likely to have significant financial implications for the Court's budget. Before the Court gives its approval to any contractual undertaking concerning such a project, the service responsible shall submit an explanatory docwnentjustifying the compatibility of the project with the financial framework. Article 9 Internal assigned revenue (Article 21 of the Financial Regulation) 9.1 Internal assigned revenue procedures shall be initiated when the responsible authorising officer prepares a recovery order involving booking against an article or item of internal assigned revenue. At the same time, the responsible authorising officer shall state the budget heading of specific expenditure corresponding to the internal assigned revenue. The recovery order and the debit notes shall be prepared by the responsible authorising officer and shall be dispatched to the debtor. 9.2 On collection of the revenue the Accounting Officer shall enter the following booking references in the central accounts: a) an appropriation under the article or item of assigned revenue concerned, b) an additional allocation of available appropriations under the budget article or item that the revenue is intended to finance. 7

8 Article 10 Budgetary commitment (Articles 85(3) and 86(4) of the Financial Regulation; Articles 98 and 99 of the Rules of Application) 10.1 Provisional budget commitments are governed by the following provisions: a) the responsible authorising officer shall monitor the individual legal commitments that are booked against each provisional budgetary commitment, if necessary using a system which is personal to the responsible authorising officer; b) during the period of validity of the provisional commitment, the only payments which may be booked against it are payments which arise out of the individual legal commitments entered into during that period or routine administrative expenditure corresponding to that period As soon as the responsible authorising officer finds that no more payments or budget adjustments are being made against the budgetary commitment, the responsible authorising officer shall cancel the_unused balance of the commitment. In doing so, the responsible authorising officer shall first ensure that all the payment and adjustment orders that the responsible authorising officer has drawn up have been registered in the institution's official accounts. The responsible authorising officer shall then draw up a commitment adjustment for the cancellation of the balance in question, specifying the grounds for cancellation As soon as the responsible authorising officer finds that the balance of the budgetary commitment is greater than the final amount of remaining legal commitments, he shall cancel the excess of committed appropriations in accordance with the procedure set out in Article Article 11 Payment by transfer (Articles 68 and 90 of the Financial Regulation; Articles 58, 59 and 62 of the Rules of Application) Payments shall be made by bank credit transfer order Before signing, the persons empowered to sign bank credit transfer orders shall verify, in particular, that the bank credit transfer orders correspond to the payment orders In the case of construction projects a special fiduciary account may, by decision of the Court, be opened and used for the payments to the operational account of the project manager. Article 12 Payment by standing order or domiciliation (Article 89(1) of the Financial Regulation; Article 63 of the Rules of Application) 8

9 12.1. Where payment deadlines fall at regular intervals, payment may be made by standing order or domiciliation. Payment by domiciliation is only possible if expressly provided for in the contract with the creditor Using a standard or electronic form, the responsible authorising officer shall submit to the Accounting Officer a request for payment by standing order which shall indicate the financial year to which the expenditure is to be charged, the numbers and amounts of the expenditure commitments intended to cover the budget expenditure to be paid by standing order, the amount of the periodic payment, the payment deadline, the payee and his bank account details, the nature and object of the expenditure and the reasons for payment by standing order rather than by direct order. He shall also indicate the maximum period of validity of the standing order, which shall normally be linked to the duration of the contract in question. The request shall comply with the provisions of Article 7 of this Decision The expenditure must be covered for the entire duration of the standing order by a commitment previously signed by the responsible authorising officer If the Accounting Officer approves he shall instruct the bank to make periodic payment. The sums paid shall be placed on a suspense account for regularisation by the responsible authorising officer. After payment, the responsible authorising officer shall make a rebooking order with a view to adjusting the suspense account by booking the item in the budget within thirty days of the date of payment At least once a year the responsible authorising officer shall examine whether the conditions that justified the use of this system of payment are still applicable and, if appropriate, shall replace it with a procedure of payment by transfer. Article 13 Imprest administrator (Articles 70 and 75 of the Financial Regulation; Articles of the Rules of Application) The duties of imprest administrator and authorising officer shall be incompatible for the same budget headings The authorising officer responsible for the budget headings concerning the imprest accounts shall ensure that all sums paid by the imprest administrator are covered by a previously signed budgetary commitment. He shall inform the administrator of the level of use of the appropriations committed in respect of the budget headings concerned Expenditure effected by the imprest administrator shall be settled by the responsible authorising officer within the time limit fixed by the decision setting up the imprest account. Article 14 Special provisions applicable to payments of advances to staff (Article 285 o/the Rules of Application) 9

10 14.1. Payment of an advance to a member of the Court's staff shall be subject to entitlement. The conditions attached to recovery of the advance shall be laid down by the authorising officer in the decision granting the advance Advances on a member of staffs salary and on mission expenses shall be deemed advances subject to the provisions of the Staff Regulations The same provisions shall apply by analogy to the Members of the institution. Article 15 Rectification of Budget entries Where a budget entry concerning a payment already made requires rectification, the authorising officer shall draw up a rebooking order and justify the operation. Article 16 Computerised register of orders and invoices (Article 93 of the Financial Regulation; Articles 112, 113 and 245(4) of the Rules of Application) The Court's accounting information systems shall enable a central computerised record of orders and invoices to be kept. This record shall be accessible by the services concerned. Article 17 Transfers of appropriations (Articles 24,25,27 and 28 of the Financial Regulation; Article 16 of the Rules of Application) For the purposes of the Court's internal management, items may be subdivided into subitems The request for transfer shall be accompanied by the following information: a detailed statement showing that the requirements of Articles 25 and 27 of the Financial Regulation have been satisfied; a statement of the activities financed by these appropriations (as compared to the estimate of expenditure contained in the preparatory budget statement); information on the use of the appropriations for the headings to be strengthened (initial appropriations, appropriations following transfers already made, commitments contracted, payments made and an estimate of appropriations needed until the end of the financial year, as well as the balance available before and after the transfer); a description of the activities to be financed and the amount requested; the origin and calculation of the surplus appropriations in the headings from which the transfer is made. The request for transfer shall be signed by the responsible Director or, in his absence, by the responsible Head of Unit. 10

11 17.3. The service responsible for the budget shall verify the data and supporting documents submitted for each request for transfer and shall, if necessary, draw the responsible authorising officer's attention to any deficiency so that it may be corrected before submission Where, in making a request for transfer, the responsible authorising officer does not propose from which budget headings the transfer would be made, the service responsible for the budget shall make a proposal and shall inform the responsible authorising officers of the budget headings concerned Where the responsible authorising officer allows transfer of an appropriation from a heading for which he is responsible, he shall ensure that the appropriation is available in the central accounts The responsible authorising officer shall submit his duly justified requests for transfer to the service responsible for the budget, which shall prepare the transfer proposal in the requisite form and in the case ofa transfer between titles, shall verify that Article 25(1 a) of the Financial Regulation is complied with To enable the European Parliament and the Council to react within the time limit fixed in Article 25(2) of the Financial Regulation, the service responsible for the budget shall send an copy of the whole file concerning the request for transfer to the registrar of the European Parliament and the Council Movements between items within the same article and between sub-items within the same item fall within the powers of the President and of the Secretary-General respectively, who may, in turn, delegate their powers to the Secretary-General (in the case of items) and to the Director of Finance and Support (in the case of sub-items).the responsible authorising officer shall send the corresponding request for transfer to the service responsible for the budget, which, if necessary, shall undertake to obtain agreement to the planned transfer from the authorising officer responsible for the other budget headings and other budget sub-items debited in the transfer The competent authority's decision to make the transfer shall be shown by entering the movements of appropriations under the budget headings concerned for the amounts required. The service responsible for the budget shall forward the decision to the responsible authorising officer and the Accounting Officer. Article 18 Carry-overs of appropriations (Articles 13 and 14 of the Financial Regulation; Article 4 of the Rules of Application) A list of budget headings for which, under the terms of Article 13(6) of the Financial Regulation, appropriations may be carried over is provided in Annex In the case of automatic carry-overs, the responsible authorising officer shall prepare a paper or electronic list showing the available balance of commitments; this balance, taken from the integrated computer system, shall, if necessary, be adjusted by taking into 11

12 consideration the appropriations to be cancelled, and shall show the appropriations to be carried forward In order to avoid the unjustified carry-over of appropriations, if the balances against a specific or provisional commitment are greater than any legal obligations towards third parties, normally in the form of a contract or order form, those balances must not be carried over The Accounting Officer shall make available to the authorising officers, via the central IT system, a list of amounts to be carried over. The authorising officers shall be responsible for ensuring that, at the end of the year, the only amounts carried over are those in respect of which there is a legal obligation to do so The responsible authorising officer shall send reasoned proposals for non automatic carryovers by 15 December at the latest to the service responsible for the budget, which shall examine the proposals to be submitted by the Secretary-General to the President for decision on 31 January at the latest. The President shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of carry-over decisions by 15 March at the latest. Article 19 Rules applicable in the event of late adoption of the budget ("provisional twelfths") (Articles 16,24,25 and 27 of the Financial Regulation) The provisional twelfths for commitments and for payment shall be calculated by the Accounting Officer. On the first day of each month, the service responsible for the budget shall adjust the respective maximum amounts according to the provisions of the Financial Regulation. It shall notify the authorising officers of the provisional twelfths applicable to the current month The President shall send a duly justified proposal, via the Commission, to the European Council and the European Parliament. Article 20 Property inventories (Article 157 of the Financial Regulation; Articles of the Rules of Application) An inventory of tangible assets shall be kept in a database common to all the authorising officers in accordance with the procedures laid down by the Secretary-General, after consulting the Accounting Officer Movements in the inventory shall be entered directly in the accounting system by the responsible authorising officer. The Accounting Officer shall carry out ex post checks Pursuant to Article 253 of the Rules of Application, the statement or record shall state the reasons for any removal from the inventory. Together with the form requesting removal from the inventory, the statement or record shall be sent to the Accounting Officer. 12

13 20.4. The responsible authorising officer shall also, where necessary, draw up an inventory of intangible assets acquired and any financial assets generated and shall advise the Accounting Officer of the value of that inventory. Article 21 Annual Activity Report (Article 66(9) of the Financial Regulation; Articles 52 and 53 of the Rules of Application) In accordance with the provision of Article 66(9) of the Financial Regulation, the Secretary-General shall report on the performance of his duties in the Court's annual activity report. The annual report shall be presented by the President to the Administrative Committee. The Administrative Committee shall examine the report and submit it to the Court for adoption by 31 March at the latest. TITLE V: MINIMUM MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES, INTERNAL CONTROL AND INTERNAL AUDITOR Article 22 Minimum management and internal control procedures (Article 32 of the Financial Regulation; Articles 65 and 66(5-7) of the Financial Regulation and Articles 46, 49, 50 and 236 of the Rules of Application) The management and internal control procedures shall be drawn up by the authorising officers in accordance with the minimum internal control standards adopted by the Court The person responsible for initiation shall prepare the file and submit it, together with all the necessary supporting documents, to the person responsible for ex ante verification The staff responsible for ex ante verification shall respect the code of professional standards established by the Court, as well as the procedures established by the authorising officers The final decision on any budgetary operation shall be taken by the responsible authorising officer, who, by signing and dating the operation, shall assume responsibility for it. The responsible authorising officer shall personally verify that the operation is consistent with the powers delegated to him. Article 23 Internal Auditor (Articles of the Financial Regulation; Articles of the Rules of Application) The internal audit function shall be governed by a mission charter adopted by the Court. 13

14 23.2. The Internal Auditor appointed by the Court shall be accountable to the latter for verifying the proper operation of the systems and procedures for implementing the budget Without prejudice to the Court's collective responsibility for the implementation of the aforementioned Articles of the Financial Regulation, an audit committee shall be set up, composed of three Members of the Court and one external expert who are appointed by the Members for a period of three years. The Audit Committee shall be governed by its rules of procedure adopted by the Court. TITLE VI: PRESENTATION OF THE ACCOUNTS AND ACCOUNTING Article 24 Accounting Officer (Articles 64, 68, 69 and 74 of the Financial Regulation; Articles 45, 54 and 64 of the Rules of Application) The responsibilities of the Accounting Officer shall be clarified in the Charter for the Accounting Officer of the Court of Auditors. The Charter shall also lay down the applicable procedures in cases of fraud, corruption or conflict of interest and for the removal of the Accounting Officer from his office. Article 25 Closure of the financial year (Articles 142, 147 and 148 of the Financial Regulation; Articles 227 and 234 of the Rules of Application) Each year the Accounting Officer shall communicate to all responsible authorising officers the practical arrangements for closure of the fmancial year, with the applicable timetable The Secretary-General shall prepare a budgetary and financial management report for the budgetary year closed and forward this report to the Administrative Committee. The Administrative Committee shall examine the budgetary and financial management report for the year and send it to the Court for adoption Each year independent external auditors shall report on the Court's accounts for the financial year in question Once the Court's Accounting Officer has signed off the accounts, the Secretary-General shall forward them to the Administrative Committee for examination before they are finally adopted by the Court. The Court's annual accounts together with the external auditors' report shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Article 26 Subsidiary texts and forms (Articles 64 and 66(7) of the Financial Regulation; Articles 45 and 50 of the Rules of Application) 14

15 26.1. The Court shall adopt charters for the Authorising Officers, minimum internal control standards and a code of professional standards All fmancial operations shall use standard forms for the commitment of budgetary expenditure, the modification of commitments, the authorisation of expenditure, estimates of amounts receivable, recovery orders, payments by standing order or domiciliation, temporary delegation, applications to set up an imprest account and decisions on the setting up of such an account and the appointment of an imprest administrator. TITLE VII: TRANSITIONAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS Article Every three years, after consulting the Accounting Officer, the Secretary-General shall report to the Administrative Committee whether the internal rules need to be amended. The Committee shall deal with the matter on the basis of its own procedures However, the Court's internal rules must be reviewed each time the Financial Regulation and its Rules of Application are amended. Article 28 Repeal This Decision repeals and replaces Decision No of the Court of Auditors of 19 January 2012, adopted by the Court on 12 January 2012, as last amended on 16 February Article 29 Entry into force This Decision shall enter into force twelve working days after its adoption by the Court of Auditors. Done at Luxembourg, 27 June 2013 For the Court of Auditors, Ut')u' - Vitor Caldeira President 15

16 ANNEX I Powers of the authorising officer as defined by the internal rules The powers of the President, the Members and the Secretary-General shall be assigned as follows: 1. The President: Chapter 10 Article 162 Article 232 Sub-item Article 254 Article 256 Sub-item Members of the institution Concerning Article Missions, the President shall sign orders for missions to be carried out by any Member of the Court and by the Secretary-General, and shall validate and authorise the corresponding expenditure. In the case of expenditure incurred by the President, the responsible authorising officer shall be the Dean in the order of precedence stipulated in Article 5 of the Rules of Procedure. Where the President is unable to be present, the temporary arrangements envisaged in Article 8 of the Rules of Procedure shall apply. Missions (Staff) The President shall have the same authorising officer powers as the Members in the case of missions and duty travel carried out by any official or member of staff within a service for which he is responsible or by the Secretary-General. Legal expenses and damages. Entertainment and representation expenses of the Members of the institution. Meetings, congresses and conferences. Expenditure on the dissemination of information and on participation in public events. Expenditure on distribution and publicising of documents. 2. The Members of the Court of Auditors: Article 162 Missions (Staff) The Members shall sign orders for missions to be carried out by any official or member of staff in their respective areas of activity, and shall validate and authorise the corresponding expenditure. This provision shall also apply to experts or national or international civil servants seconded to the Court and to trainees.

17 3. The Dean of the CEAD Chamber: Sub-item Article 274, except sub-item Studies and other consultancy services in the Court's audit activities. Production and distribution. 4. The Secretary-General: Responsibility for the remaining part of the budget. 2

18 ANNEX 11 List of budget headings for which appropriations may be carried over (pursuant to Article 13 (6) of the Financial Regulation) CHAPTER 10 Article 100 Sub-Item Members of the Institution Remuneration and other entitlements Removal expenses CHAPTER 12 Article 120 Sub-item Sub-item Officials and temporary staff Remuneration and other entitlements Periodic penalty payments Removal expenses CHAPTER 16 Other expenditure relating to persons working for the institution TITLE 2 Buildings, movable property, equipment and miscellaneous operating expenditure