Audit Commission
The Auditing Commission ( RPK ) is an authority that acts on all political levels of the Swiss state . As a rule, it is responsible for all financial proposals to the municipal assembly , in particular the budget , the annual accounts and special resolutions. It submits a report and application to the legislature . The legislature at the community level is the community assemblies or councils (e.g. in the city of Zurich ), at the canton level the cantonal parliament and at the federal level the national and state councils .
Duties and powers
The tasks of an RPK are defined in the municipal code. In general, it can be stated that the auditing commission checks estimates, annual accounts, special applications, building accounts, cash and bookkeeping, special operating accounts and independent special accounts of the political community, the school community and the special communities. First and foremost, estimates and invoices are checked for completeness, legality and correctness. During the legality check, it must be examined whether the expenses incurred are based on an appropriate legal basis and whether they are within the scope of the approved loans and other legal bases.
Apart from that, the focus is on the appropriateness check, which - in addition to the special spending decisions - is provided for all applications of financial implications to the municipal assembly (real estate transactions, building rights, granting of loans, salary regulations, etc.). The test of appropriateness relates in advance to the requirement of thrift, i.e. H. Expenses are to be checked for necessity and urgency. Finally, if it is recognized that expenditure is necessary, the relationship between costs and benefits must be examined ( economic efficiency test ). The assessment of the expediency from a factual and technical point of view is, however, always reserved for the executive bodies, while the audit authority of the auditing commission is limited to economic aspects. The delimitation of the responsibilities between the executive and the auditing committee can cause problems in practice, especially since the question of economic efficiency can often not be answered without considering various objective solutions. Therefore, the responsibilities can only be determined on the basis of the specific individual case. In principle, however, it should be noted that the responsibility of the audit commission must be affirmed in case of doubt.
Although the Audit Commission is only responsible to the state supervisory authorities, it has no independent administrative powers. In addition, it is not allowed to give instructions to the administrative authorities . Their competencies are limited to the submission of recommendations and the submission of dependent applications (right to submit applications for items on the agenda) to the municipal assembly.
Similar institutions in other states
- Federal Audit Office (Germany)
- Court of Auditors (Austria)
literature
- Fiebig, Helmut (2007): Municipal auditing - basics, tasks, organization , ISBN 3-503-10327-9
- Müller-Marquès Berger, Thomas (2008): International Accounting for the Public Sector (IPSAS), ISBN 3-7910-2440-X
- Voringer, Günter (2003): Auditing of the municipalities - rights and obligations of municipal elected officials on the basis of the Bavarian municipal code , ISBN 3-415-03129-2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Thalmann: Commentary on the Zurich municipal law . 3rd edition, Wädenswil 2000, N 1 ff. On § 140 GG