The Audit Authority shall be organized and shall operate to fulfill certain obligations in the field of external audit, which Romania has in its capacity as a European Union member state; these shall cover the non-reimbursable pre-accession funds granted to Romania by the European Union, through PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programs, for the structural and cohesion funds, for the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, for the Fishery European Fund, as well as for the funds to be granted in the post-accession period, hereto called the Audit Authority, which has own competences and work procedures.
The Audit Authority shall be an operationally independent body in relation to the Court of Accounts and to the other authorities in charge of the management and implementation of non-reimbursable community funds, having its head office in Bucharest Municipality. In the territory, the Audit Authority shall have regional structures, organized in the counties where agencies, management authorities and/or intermediate bodies managing community funds conduct their activity.
The Audit Authority shall be the sole national authority competent to conduct external public audit, in keeping with community and national laws, of the above listed funds; it shall be competent to perform external public audit of other funds categories, while the regulations covering the respective funds shall also provide the resources required.
In keeping with the community and national law, with the internationally accepted audit standards, the Audit Authority shall conduct system audit and operations audit.
The main competences of the Audit Authority shall be as follows:
- assessment of the compliance of management and control systems for the operational programs, co-financed by structural instruments and by the Fishery European Fund, with community legal provisions;
- examination, based on a representative sample, of the expenditure declared by the authorities in charge of the management and implementation of the mentioned funds;
- annual reporting on the compatibility of management and control systems of the authorities in charge of the management and implementation of the mentioned funds, in point of their capacity to ensure compliance of the operations with community regulations;
- checking the existence and correctness of the national co-financing element;
- issue of audit certificates on the payment agencies annual accounts, as well as for the SAPARD euro account, concerning the integrality, accuracy and veracity of these accounts.
- issue of an opinion on the declaration of assurance, issued by the payment agencies for agriculture and rural development;
- issue of the closing statements, accompanied by audit reports, for each program or measure, financed from the mentioned funds, according to case;
- overseeing the observance of accreditation criteria relating to the authorities in charge of the management and implementation of non-reimbursable community funds for agriculture and rural development, on their overall technical and financial implementation period;
- overseeing the implementation by auditees of the recommendations submitted following audit actions conducted by the Audit Authority.
The Audit Authority shall have the role of a certifying body in relation to non-reimbursable community funds for agriculture and rural development support.
The Audit Authority may conclude agreements with the structures in charge of the mentioned funds management, to implement its powers and duties.
The Audit Authority shall report to the European Commission on the use of these non-reimbursable community funds and the main findings and recommendations resulting from the audits conducted shall be included in the Court of Accounts’ annual public report.
The Audit Authority shall have unrestricted access to the instruments, documents and information required to carry out its competences, irrespective of the legal or moral persons holding them.
The Audit Authority may conclude contracts with specialized companies or with authorized experts to implement certain activities to complete its mandate.
The Audit Authority shall be headed by a president and two vice-presidents, appointed by the Parliament from among the counselors of accounts, for the respective duration of the counselor of accounts’ term of office. The term of office may not be renewed.
The President of the Audit Authority shall issue decisions and instructions for the organization and operation of the central and regional structures he/she coordinates.
The funds required for the Audit Authority to conduct its activity shall be provided from the state budget and shall be included in the expenditure budget of the Court of Accounts.