New tasks

Chronological review of the new competences and assignments of the Court of Audit; more details can be found in the general presentation of the Court of Audit:

  • audit of tax revenues (1995). This is mainly a systems audit, not an audit of individual tax returns. The terms of reference were set out in a protocol agreement between the Court and the Minister of Finance;

  • advice to federal and regional Parliaments regarding draft budgets, within strict deadlines (1996);

  • ex post audit of the compliance with the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, i.e. performance audits (1998);

  • verification of the outcomes of Communities’ students counting, that are the basis for the allocation of VAT resources for educational matters among the Communities (2000);

  • advice on draft laws of the Regions establishing general tax reductions and increases, surcharges or deductions (2002);

  • continuous monitoring of the expenditure appropriations and report immediately about any case of excess spending (2003);

  • check on political parties and candidates election campaign expenditure, and examination of political parties accounts (2003);

  • tasks relating to lists of mandates and declarations of assets to be submitted to the Court of Audit by political representatives and senior office holders (2005);

  • at the request of the federal Parliament, examining bills with financial consequences (2005);

  • audit of the accounts of publicly funded institutions with special status, such as the Constitutional Court and the High Council of Justice (2007).

In 2014, article 180 of the Belgian Constitution on the Court of Audit was amended:

  • constitutional base provided to legal provisions organising the audit of the Court on budgets and accounts of the Federated entities and public institutions depending on them;

  • federated entities allowed to entrust the Court with new missions against payment of a fee.

Also since 2014, the Court’s competences have been further extended by law:

  • examination of the legality and regularity of expenditure of members of the royal family (2014);

  • advice on certain health policy competences (draft laws concerning recognition standards for hospital services) of the Communities (2014);

  • reports concerning some justice competences of the Communities (2014);

  • temporary additional report concerning allocation of tax resources between the Federal State and the Regions (2016);

  • financial audit extended to all legal bodies of central governments (Federal State and federated entities), as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESR 2015).

  • reporting mission concerning the apportionment of the federal quota of doctors between the Communities (2018)

  • certification of the annual accounts of the Federal State and all Federated entities (from 2020 at the latest). This new mission derives from the transposition into national law of EU regulations (so-called six-pack and two-pack). Based on regional legislation, the Court already has been certifying the accounts of the Brussels Capital Region and the German speaking Community since several years.

  • new assignment concerning the political transparency rules: sanctioning (with administrative fines) political representatives and senior office holders not submitting lists of mandates and declarations of assets (from 2019).

Since 2024, the Court of Audit reviews the accounts of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the parliaments of the Walloon Region and the French Community. The Court already audited the accounts of the Flemish Parliament, the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, the Parliament of the German-speaking Community, as well as those of certain endowment-entitled institutions.

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