Activity program
The external public audit activity, exercised by the Court of Accounts, is carried out independently, in compliance with its own rules which are adopted on the basis of international auditing standards, and consists mainly in performing three types of audit : financial audit, performance audit and compliance audit.
The unitary achieving of the activities necessary to carry out the development, amendment and supervision of the Court Activity Program is based on the following legal provisions:
- The Court of Accounts decides independently on its activity program;
- The actions are initiated ex officio and can be stopped solely by the Parliament, and only in case of exceeding the competences established by law for the Court of Accounts;
- Decisions of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate are binding. They require the Court of Accounts to carry out audits within the limits of its powers. No other public authority, person or entity, may oblige it to do so;
- External public audits are carried out based on the Activity Program. They are performed by the Court of Accounts according to the competences provided in the Romanian Constitution, in its law of organization and functioning and in its own rules regarding the management of specific activities.
The activity planning, which manifests in the activity program, allows:
- pursuing the fulfillment of the legal audit obligation, within the legal limitation period, of all annual budget execution accounts of public authorities and institutions whose managers have the quality of chief authorizing officer.
- achieving the connection between the strategy objectives of the Court of Accounts and the activities that will be carried out in order to achieve these objectives;
- efficient internal management of financial and human resources, by developing human resources policies and improving the professional training of external public auditors, based on performance indicators;
- maximizing the impact of control / audit actions on public financial management, by properly selecting the topics and by efficiently allocating the human and time resources available to the Court of Accounts.
The general principles taken into account in drawing up the activity program :
- lawfulness - according to which the activity program is based on the Court of Accounts legal mandate , and includes the mandatory audits provided by Law no. 94/1992 on the organization and functioning of the Court of Accounts, republished, with subsequent amendments and addendums;
- the independence, impartiality and objectivity of the proposals - according to which the selection of actions or entities will not depend on external, political or any other type of group interests, or on the subjective criteria of the persons making the selection;
- the realistic character - which implies the inclusion in the program of those control / audit actions that can be performed with the available resources and means of each structure;
- compliance with international commitments on joint audits, coordinated audits and other similar commitments – placing in the activity program of tasks resulting from international commitments
During the development of the activity program, changes may be made if considered absolutely necessary, their approval being within the competence of the Court of Accounts Plenum.
The activity program is published in order to provide transparent information to the authorities and to the general public and to facilitate quick access to information on scheduled audit missions, both at central and local government level.
