Federal Audit Office

Federal ; Court of Auditors - BRH -
State level	Federation
position	Supreme federal authority
legal form	independent body of financial control
Supervisory authority	no
founding	1950
predecessor	Imperial Audit Office
Headquarters	Bonn
president	Kay Scheller
Servants	1150
Budget volume	around 160 million euros
Web presence	www.bundesrechnungshof.de

Federal Audit Office, aerial photo (2017)

Building of the Federal Audit Office in Bonn, formerly the Ministry of Post and the Foreign Office

Entrance to the Federal Audit Office ( Adenauerallee 81 in Bonn)

The Federal Court of Auditors ( BRH ) examines the bill as well as the efficiency and correctness of the budget and economic management of the federal government ( Art. 114 GG ). It is a supreme federal authority and, as an independent body of financial control, is only subject to the law ( § 1 sentence 1 BRHG ). As part of its statutory tasks, the Federal Audit Office supports the German Bundestag , the Bundesrat and the Federal Government in their decisions ( Section 1 sentence 2 BRHG ).

In his core tasks, auditing, reporting and advising, he is, as external financial control, not part of the executive (administration), but rather stands outside the classic three powers. He is not subordinate to the federal government. The legislature (parliament) cannot give him any instructions, but only ask him to examine certain facts. The BRH differs from the third power, the judiciary (jurisdiction), in that, on the one hand, it freely chooses its examination material and, on the other hand, it complains about violations of applicable law or a lack of economy and efficiency. He also makes suggestions on how these shortcomings could be remedied. All documents required by the BRH must be submitted to the BRH. However, the BRH does not have the authority to issue instructions to the audited bodies to remedy the defects complained of. The precise classification of the BRH in the classic system of separation of powers is controversial. The federal states have their own state audit offices .

history

Probably the first forerunner of an audit office in Germany was the “Prussian Chamber of Accounts”. It was founded in 1714 by King Friedrich Wilhelm I as the "General Computing Chamber", converted into a "Upper War and Domain Computing Chamber" in 1723 and continued until 1945. In 1868 it also became the "Audit Office of the North German Confederation" and in 1871 it also became the " Audit Office of the German Empire ". After the war, in 1948 an "Audit Office in the United Economic Area" was set up, followed by the Federal Audit Office in 1950.

tasks and activities

The Federal Audit Office examines the budget and economic management of the federal government. The subject of its audits are the annual income and expenditure of the federal government totaling over 700 billion euros. In addition, the Federal Audit Office examines, among other things, the statutory social insurance carriers if they receive federal subsidies or if the federal government has a guarantee liability. The Federal Audit Office summarizes its findings in audit notices or reports, which it generally sends to the audited bodies. He reports on his most important audit results to the Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the federal government in an annual report, the "Comments". In addition, the Federal Audit Office advises parliament and the government on the basis of its audit findings. The members of the Court of Auditors are judicially independent (only subject to the law). The federal service court is responsible for disciplinary and service law issues of its members .

The President of the Federal Audit Office is traditionally also the Federal Commissioner for Economic Efficiency in Administration (BWV). The origin of the tradition goes back to the Weimar Republic. The function of the BWV has proven itself for decades. In addition, he is the service manager of the active, but also the inactive employees of his division.

organization

Former building of the Federal Audit Office in Frankfurt am Main in 1958

The Federal Audit Office consists of nine audit departments with currently around 51 audit areas. Administrative tasks are performed by a presidential department subordinate to the President. The international cooperation of the BRH is handled by the UN BoA, International Affairs unit. This supports the President in his capacity as a member of the United Nations Board of Auditors, the central audit committee of the United Nations. The BRH employs around 1150 people - most of them auditors.

Its members - in addition to the President and Vice-President, these are the department heads and the examination area heads - make decisions in the BRH's examination area as a collegiate body. As a rule, the responsible college of two (head of department and head of examination area) decides. In certain cases, the president or the vice-president join in (college of three). Decisions in the college of two and three can only be reached unanimously. The Grand Senate of the BRH are u. a. We reserve the right to make decisions in cross-departmental or particularly important matters - such as the adoption of the annual reports (the so-called comments ). The Grand Senate decides by majority vote. Other collegial bodies are the Standing Committee of the Grand Senate and the (departmental) Senates.

With the Berlin / Bonn Act in 2000, the seat of the BRH was relocated from Frankfurt am Main to the Federal City of Bonn .

Federal preliminary examination offices and examination offices

The nine federal audit offices were subordinate to the Federal Audit Office . They emerged in 1998 from the former federal preliminary examination offices . On January 1, 2017, a structural reform within the Federal Audit Office and the federal external financial control came into force. The previously independent examination offices were dissolved and integrated into the Federal Audit Office. One level of the hierarchy has thus been abolished. The number of examination departments and examination areas remained unchanged. However, the audit departments are now more focused than before on key policy areas. In addition to Bonn and Potsdam, the locations of the former federal examination offices were the cities of Berlin , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Hanover , Koblenz , Munich and Stuttgart . The Federal Audit Office continues to maintain branch offices here.

Information requirements

The Freedom of Information Act (IFG) does not apply to the auditing and advisory activities of the Federal Audit Office. Rather, access to audit documents from the Federal Audit Office is regulated by special law in Section 96 (4) of the Federal Budget Code (BHO): by the law amending the Financial Equalization Act and the Federal Budget Code. Section 96 (4) BHO came into force on July 19, 2013 ( Federal Law Gazette Part I of July 18, 2013).

According to this, access to the files kept by the Federal Audit Office for auditing and advisory activities is completely excluded (Section 96 (4) sentence 3 BHO). Critics criticize this. They see this as a departure from the principle of freedom of information that actually applies to all authorities . With Section 96 (4) BHO, the legislature withdrew the obligation to publish the files of the Federal Audit Office. Administrative lawyer Friedrich Schoch criticized the fact that the area exception was not constitutional.

The legislature justified the regulation with the protection of the auditing and advisory activities of the Federal Audit Office and the parliamentary financial control. For this purpose, Section 96 (4) BHO separates the examination from the result. In order to protect an unhindered decision-making process, third parties are not allowed to look into the audit and advisory files and the corresponding files at the audited bodies after the end of the procedure (Section 96 (4) sentences 3 and 4 BHO). The Federal Audit Office may only pass on the relevant audit results once they have been conclusively established (Section 96 (4) sentence 1 BHO). The same applies to reports according to § 88 BHO, which can also only be viewed after they have been finally discussed by Parliament (§ 96 (4) sentence 2 BHO).

The decision on whether to provide information on the conclusively ascertained audit results is at the discretion of the Federal Court of Auditors. According to this, the legislature stipulated that the Federal Audit Office decides on a case-by-case basis on every request for information on a conclusively determined audit result. When deciding on the surrender, the Federal Audit Office must weigh up in particular whether the decision takes sufficient account of the idea of transparency, and whether it has a negative impact on the work of the Federal Audit Office or on parliamentary budget control, or whether other public or private matters conflict with the request for information. In this way, administrative action becomes transparent not only for the German Bundestag, but also for the public.

According to the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia , the essential importance of Section 96 (4) BHO is to divide the audit into a non-public part, which only ends with the final result of the audit, and the subsequent public part, if applicable, in the interests of effective external financial control.

The remarks

In its comments on budgetary and economic management of the federal government , which appear annually in autumn and in the spring of the following year, the Federal Audit Office summarizes numerous audit results in the form of a report. This annual report can cover both the last financial year and the previous one. This publication is often the basis for critical reporting in the press.

The remarks are generally very factual and specific and point out problems that have been discovered without further ado. In this approach, they occasionally appear relentless, sarcastic or cynical.

The BRH also mentions audit results that are not purely monetary-based in its comments, for example in 2006 it criticized the thin staffing levels and inadequate IT equipment at customs offices at airports.