The report on budgetary and financial management during the year shall give an accurate description of:
the achievement of the objectives for the year, in accordance with the principle of sound financial management;
the financial situation and the events which have had a significant influence on activities during the year.
The report on budgetary and financial management shall be separate from the reports on implementation of the budget.
Where, in a specific case, the accounting officers consider that an exception should be made to the content of one of the accounting principles outlined in the Union accounting rules, that exception shall be duly substantiated and reported in the notes to the financial statements referred to in Article 232.
1.Each entry shall be based on dated and numbered supporting documents, produced on paper or on a medium which guarantees the reliability and safeguarding of its content for the periods laid down in Article 48.
2.Operations of the same type, carried out in the same place and on the same day may be summarised in a single supporting document.
The statement of financial performance shall show the income and charges for the year, classified according to their nature.
The cash flow statement shall report cash flows during the period showing the movement between opening and closing treasury amounts.
The treasury shall be made up of the following:
cash in hand;
bank accounts and deposits payable on demand;
other disposable assets which can quickly be converted to cash and whose value is stable.
The notes referred to in article 145 of the Financial Regulation shall form an integral part of the financial statements. The notes shall contain at least the following information:
accounting principles, rules and methods;
explanatory notes, supplying additional information not contained in the body of the financial statements which is necessary for a true and fair view.
1.The budgetary outturn accounts shall contain:
(a)information on revenue comprising:
changes in the revenue estimates in the budget;
the revenue outturn;
entitlements established;
(b)information showing changes in the total commitment and payment appropriations available;
(c)information showing the use made of the total commitment and payment appropriations available;
(d)information showing commitments outstanding, those carried over from the previous year and those made during the year.
2.As regards information on revenue, a statement shall also be attached showing, for each Member State, the breakdown of amounts of own resources still to be recovered at the end of the financial year and covered by a recovery order.
Provisional accounts and the final accounts referred to in Articles 147 and 148 of the Financial Regulation may be sent by electronic means.
1.The accounting officer of each institution and body referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall draw up and keep updated documents describing the organisation of the accounts and accounting procedures of his institution and body.
2.Budget revenue and expenditure shall be recorded in the computerised system referred to in Article 236, according to the economic nature of the operation, as current revenue or expenditure or as capital.
1.The accounts shall be kept with the help of an integrated computerised system.
2.Where accounts are kept using computerised systems and subsystems, such systems and subsystems shall be described in full.
That description shall define the content of all data fields and specify how the system treats individual operations. It shall state how the system guarantees the existence of a complete audit trail for each operation and for any change made to the computerised systems and subsystems so that it is possible at any time to identify the nature of the change and the person who made it.
The description of computerised accounting systems and subsystems shall indicate any links between those systems and the central accounting system, particularly as regards the transfer of data and the reconciliation of balances.
3.Access to the computerised systems and subsystems shall be confined to persons included on a list of authorised users which is kept and updated by each institution.
Each institution and each body referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall keep a journal, a general ledger and at least sub-ledgers for debtors, creditors and fixed assets, unless it is not justified by cost-benefit considerations.
The accounting ledgers shall consist of electronic documents which are identified by the accounting officer and offer full guarantees for use as evidence.
Entries in the journal shall be transferred to the general ledger, itemised according to the chart of accounts referred to in Article 212.
The journal and the general ledger may be split into as many special journals and special ledgers are necessary to meet requirements.
Entries recorded in special journals and special ledgers shall be centralised at least every month in the journal and in the general ledger.
Each institution and body referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall establish a trial balance covering all the accounts of the general accounts, including the accounts cleared during the year, with, in each case:
account number;
description;
total debits;
total credits;
balance.
1.The data in the general ledger shall be kept and organised in such a way as to justify the content of each of the accounts included in the trial balance.
2.As regards the inventory of fixed assets, the provisions of Articles 246 to 253 shall apply.
1.Entries shall be made using the double entry method, whereby any movement or variation recorded in the accounts shall be represented by an entry establishing an equivalence between the amount debited and the amount credited in the various accounts affected by that entry.
2.The euro counterpart of a transaction denominated in a currency other than the euro shall be calculated and entered in the accounts.
Transactions in foreign currencies in accounts which can be revalued shall be revalued at least each time the accounts are closed.
That revaluation shall be based on the rates laid down in accordance with Article 6.
The rate to be used for conversion between the euro and another currency to draw up the balance sheet at 31 December of year N shall be that of the last working day of year N.
3.The Union accounting rules adopted under Article 152 of the Financial Regulation shall specify the conversion and re-evaluation rules to be provided for the purposes of accrual accounting.
All accounting records shall specify the origin, content and booking reference of each data item and the references of the relevant supporting documents.
Accounting operations shall be recorded in the journal by one of the following methods, which are not mutually exclusive:
day by day, operation by operation;
in the form of a monthly summary of the total amounts involved in operations, provided that all documents allowing verification of individual operations day by day are kept.
1.Entries in the journal and in sub-ledgers shall be made final by means of a validation procedure prohibiting any change to or deletion of the entry.
2.A closure procedure designed to freeze the chronology of records and guarantee their inviolability shall be implemented at the latest before the final financial statements are presented.
1.The balance of accounts in the trial balance shall be reconciled periodically and at least at the annual closure, with the data from the management systems used by authorising officers for the management of assets and liabilities and for the daily input into the accounting system.
2.Periodically, and at least whenever the accounts are closed, the accounting officer shall check that the bank balances correspond to the actual situation, in particular as regards:
(a)cash at bank, by reconciliation of the statements of account from financial institutions;
(b)cash in cash offices, by reconciliation with the data in the cash book.
The fixed assets accounts shall be reviewed in accordance with Article 250.
3.The interinstitutional liaison accounts shall be reconciled monthly.
4.The suspense accounts shall be opened and reviewed annually by the accounting officer. Those accounts shall be under the responsibility of the authorising officer and he shall clear them as soon as possible.
1.The budget accounts shall show, for each subdivision of the budget:
(a)in the case of expenditure:
the appropriations authorised in the initial budget, the appropriations entered in amending budgets, the appropriations carried over, the appropriations available following collection of assigned revenue, transfers of appropriations and the total appropriations thus available;
the commitments and payments in respect of the financial year;
(b)in the case of revenue:
the estimates entered in the initial budget, the estimates entered in amending budgets, assigned revenue and the total amount of estimates thus determined;
the entitlements established and the amounts recovered in respect of the financial year in question;
(c)the commitments still to be paid and revenue still to be recovered carried forward from previous financial years.
The commitment appropriations and payment appropriations referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph shall be entered and shown separately.
The global provisional commitments relating to the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (hereinafter ‘EAGF’) and the corresponding payments shall also be recorded in the budget accounts.
Those commitments shall be presented in respect of total EAGF appropriations.
2.The budget accounts shall show separately:
(a)the use of appropriations carried over and the appropriations for the year;
(b)the clearance of outstanding commitments.
On the revenue side, amounts still to be recovered from previous financial years shall be shown separately.
3.The budget accounts may be organised in such a way as to develop a cost accounting system.
4.The budget accounts shall be kept using computer systems, in books or on file cards.
The system of property inventories shall be established by the authorising officer with technical assistance from the accounting officer. That inventory system must supply all the information required for keeping the accounts and safeguarding assets.
Each of the institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall adopt provisions on safeguarding the assets included in their respective balance sheets and decide which administrative departments are responsible for the inventory system.
All items acquired with a period of use greater than one year, which are not consumables, and whose purchase price or production cost is higher than that indicated in the Union accounting rules adopted under Article 152 of the Financial Regulation shall be entered in the inventory and recorded in the fixed assets accounts.
The inventory shall contain an appropriate description of each item and specify its location, or for movable items, the service or person responsible, the date of acquisition and its unit cost.
Inventory checks carried out by the institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall be performed in such a way as to ensure that each item physically exists and matches the relevant entry in the inventory. Such checks shall be carried out under an annual verification programme, save for fixed tangible assets and intangible assets, which shall be checked at least on a three-year basis.
Members, officials or other servants and any other staff of the institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation may not acquire items that are resold by these institutions and bodies, save where those items are resold by public tender procedure.
1.Sales of tangible assets shall be advertised locally in appropriate manner, if the unit purchase value is EUR 8 100 or more. The period between publication of the last announcement and conclusion of the sales contract shall be no less than 14 calendar days.
The sales referred to in the first subparagraph shall be the subject of a notice of sale published in the Official Journal of the European Union, if the unit purchase value is EUR 391 100 or more. Appropriate advertising may also be placed in the Member States’ press. The period between the date of publication of the notice in the Official Journal of the European Union and conclusion of the sales contract shall be no less than one month.
2.The institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation may forgo advertising where the cost of advertising exceeds the expected return from the operation.
3.The institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation shall always endeavour to obtain the best price for sales of tangible assets.
4.Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply to sales between Union institutions and their bodies referred to in Article 208 of the Financial Regulation.
A statement or record shall be drawn up by the authorising officer whenever any property in the inventory, including buildings, is sold, given away free of charge, scrapped, hired out or missing on account of loss, theft or any other reason.
The statement or record shall indicate in particular whether the item must be replaced at the expense of an official or other servant of the Union or any other person.
Where immovable property or major installations are made available free of charge, a contract must be drawn up and the case notified in an annual report sent to the European Parliament and the Council when the draft budget is presented.
Members, officials or other servants and any other staff of the institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 of the Financial Regulation may not be recipients of the property in the inventory given away free of charge or scrapped.
1.In the case of the Union delegations, the permanent inventories of movable property belonging to the Union shall be kept locally. They shall be sent regularly to the central departments in accordance with the rules adopted by each institution.
Movable property in transit to the Union delegations shall be entered on a provisional list before being recorded in the permanent inventories.
2.The advertising for sales of movable property of Union delegations shall be done in accordance with local usage.