Mandate
The Court of Accounts shall conduct the control of the establishment, management and use of state and public sector financial resources, subsequently providing the Parliament and the administrative and territorial units, reports on their use and management, in keeping with the principles of legality, regularity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The Court of Accounts has the competence to also conduct performance audits of the consolidated general budget management, as well as of any public funds.
The specific activities of the Court of Accounts are:
A. in point of the domain of activity, in keeping with the provisions of art. 22 and 29, paragraph (2) and (3) of the law and with those of item 12 of the Regulation, the actions refer to:
a) the establishment and use of the state budget resources, of the state social insurance budget and of the territorial and administrative units budgets, as well as the movement of funds among these budgets;
b) the establishment and use of other public funds under the general consolidated budget;
c) the establishment and management of the public debt and the situation of the government guarantees for internal and external credits;
d) the use of budget allocations for investments, of the subventions and transfers and of other financial assistance from the state or the administrative and territorial units;
e) the establishment, management and use of public funds by the autonomous administrative authorities and by the public institutions incorporated by law, as well as by the autonomous state social insurance bodies;
f) the situation, evolution and management of the public and private patrimony of the state and of the administrative and territorial units by public institutions, autonomous administrations, national companies and enterprises, as well as the assignment or lease of publicly owned assets;
g) the establishment, use and management of financial resources for environment protection, life and labor conditions quality enhancement;
h) the observance, by the authorities with competences in the field of privatization, of the privatization methods and procedures laid down in the law;
j) the observance of the legal provisions on the administration and use of financial resources resulting from privatization actions;
k) other domains which, by law, fall under the competence of the Court of Accounts.
B. in point of categories of entities under the examination jurisdiction of the Court of Accounts, laid down in art. 23 and 24 of the law, the following shall be covered by its control/audit activities:
a) the state and the administrative-territorial units, in the capacity as public law legal persons, with their public services and institutions, autonomous or non autonomous;
b) the National Bank of Romania;
c) the autonomous administrations;
d) the commercial companies where the state, the administrative and territorial units, the public institutions or the autonomous administrations hold, individually or jointly, the entirety or more than a half of, the
social equity;
e) the social insurance or other autonomous bodies that manage assets, valuables or funds, under a mandatory legal regimen, whenever this is laid down in the law or in their articles of association;
f) the persons, other than the ones provided under art. 23 of the law (legal persons, irrespective of the ownership form, and natural persons) that:
- benefit from government guarantees for credits, from subventions or other state financial assistance, the administrative and territorial units, other public institutions;
- manage, based on an assignment or lease contract, assets belonging to the public or private domain of the state or of the administrative and territorial units;
- manage and/or use public funds, the examinations of which shall be conducted solely relating to the legality of the management of these funds and/or use.
C. in point of the type of examination actions, the Court of Accounts shall conduct:
a) control actions, covering:
- the public institutions laid down under art. 23 and art. 25 paragraph (1) of the law, during budget implementation and relating to the closed periods, according to case;
- other entities laid down under art. 23 (other than public institutions), under art. 24 and art. 29 paragraph (2) and (3) of the law;
b) financial audit missions, in keeping with the provisions of art. 26 of the law, covering the general consolidated budget implementation accounts, respectively:
- the general state annual budget implementation account;
- the state social insurance annual budget implementation account;
- the special funds annual implementation accounts;
- the local budgets and that of Bucharest Municipality, the budgets of counties, of Bucharest Municipality sectors, of the municipalities of towns and communes annual implementation accounts;
- the State Treasury annual budget implementation account;
- the autonomous public institutions annual budgets implementation accounts;
- the accounts relating to the implementation of public institutions annual budgets, financed integrally or partially from the state budget, from the state social insurance budget, from the local budgets and from the budgets of the special funds, according to case;
- the public institutions integrally financed from own revenues annual budgets implementation accounts;
- the state general annual public debt account;
- the non-reimbursable external funds annual budget implementation accounts;
- the accounts of other budgets implementation provided by law;
c) performance audit missions, covering the use of state and public sector financial resources, both upon conclusion and during the unfolding of the projects, programs, processes or activities under examination, in keeping with the provisions of art. 28 of the law.
The Court of Accounts shall advise, in keeping with art. 41 of the law:
a) upon request by the Senate or by the Chamber of Deputies, the state budget draft and the law drafts in the field of public finances and accounting or those the enforcement of which would result in a decrease of the revenue or an increase of the expenditure approved by the budget law.
b) the establishment by the Government or by ministries of specialized bodies under their subordination.
Thus, for example, in 2008 the Court of Accounts negatively advised the request by the Ministry of Public Health to set up three national authorities under its subordination and favorably advised the establishment of the Agency for Credits to Students of State and Accredited Private Higher Education Institutions, subordinated to the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. Furthermore, in 2009 the Court negatively advised the request by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development to set up the Agency for the Management of the Rural Development National Program.