97Preparation and audit of Assembly’s annual accounts
(1)The Assembly shall, for each financial year, prepare accounts in accordance with directions given to it by the Treasury.
(2)The directions which the Treasury may give under subsection (1) include directions to prepare accounts relating to financial affairs and transactions of persons other than the Assembly.
(3)The directions which the Treasury may give under subsection (1) include, in particular, directions as to—
(a)the financial affairs and transactions to which the accounts are to relate,
(b)the information to be contained in the accounts and the manner in which it is to be presented,
(c)the methods and principles in accordance with which the accounts are to be prepared, and
(d)the additional information (if any) that is to accompany the accounts.
(4)Any accounts which the Assembly is directed under this section to prepare for any financial year shall be submitted by the Assembly to the Auditor General for Wales no later than five months after the end of that financial year.
(5)The Auditor General for Wales shall—
(a)examine and certify any accounts submitted to him under this section, and
(b)no later than four months after the accounts are submitted to him, lay before the Assembly a copy of them as certified by him together with his report on them.
(6)In examining any accounts submitted to him under this section, the Auditor General for Wales shall, in particular, satisfy himself—
(a)that the expenditure to which the accounts relate has been incurred lawfully and in accordance with the authority which governs it, and
(b)that money received by the Assembly for a particular purpose or particular purposes has not been expended otherwise than for that purpose or those purposes.
(7)Where—
(a)by virtue of any enactment other than this section the Assembly is under an obligation to prepare accounts dealing with any matters, and
(b)it appears to the Treasury that those matters fall to be dealt with in accounts directed to be prepared under this section,
the Treasury may relieve the Assembly of that obligation for or in respect of such periods as they may direct.