Court of Audit of Belgium - Historical survey

law organising the Court

Evolution of the organisation

Under the decree of 30 December 1830 the Court would be composed of 8 members (a president, six councillors and a registrar), which was confirmed by the law of 29 October 1846. Within this context the rules of procedure of 9 April 1831 divided the Court into two sections of three councillors; the first so-called "accounting" section dealt with the receipts and all matters relating to the accounts and the public accounting officers, whereas the second section controlled the expenditures, the pensions and the public debt.
In order to enable the Court to manage the considerable extension of the files and the consequences of the First World War, the law of 4 June 1921 provided for the creation of two chambers; each one was composed of a president, four councillors and a registrar. The rules of procedure of 14 July 1922 distributed the powers of the Court over those two chambers, each of which was divided into two sections of two councillors. The first chamber was especially entrusted with the audit of the general accounts and the accounts of the accounting officers (which were then approved or closed in general assembly). The second chamber monitored the entries made to prevent expenditures in excess of the budget appropriations and dealt with questions relating to the payment and transfer orders submitted to the Court's prior approval and outside the remit of the first chamber, as well as with the accounts of the committed expenditures that were transmitted to the Court under the law on the accounting of the committed expenditures passed on 20 July 1921.
AAs a result of the coming into force of the law of 28 June 1932 relating to the use of the languages in administrative matters, the rules of procedure of 13 June 1935 provided that the Court would from then on consist of a French speaking and a Dutch speaking chamber to which the files to be presented respectively in each of both languages would be submitted. The bilingual files would be equally entrusted by the Senior President to both chambers.
After several slight amendments on 7 May 1952, 21 June 1955 and 25 June 1975, the rules of procedure of the Court were adapted to the new structures of the Belgian State on 5 February 1998. Matters pertaining to the French Community, the French Community Commission of the Brussels-Capital Region, the Walloon Region, the provinces that are part of this Region and the public service institutions depending on those entities fall exclusively under the French Chamber's remit. In the same way matters pertaining to the Flemish Community, the Flemish Region, the provinces that are part of this Region and the public service institutions depending on those entities fall exclusively under the Flemish Chamber's remit. The general assembly remains responsible for the matters relating to the Federal State, the Region of Brussels-Capital, the Common Community Commission and the German speaking Community. It also remains responsible for the interpretation of the European and Federal rules.

Evolution of the powers

Articles 3 and 5 of the decree of the 30 December 1830 establishing the Court of Audit passed by the National Congress empowered the new institution to perform a general external audit:

"Art. 3. Cette Cour est chargée de l'examen et de la liquidation des comptes de l'administration générale et de tous comptables envers le Trésor. Elle veille à ce qu'aucun article des dépenses du budget ne soit dépassé et qu'aucun transfert n'ait lieu. Elle arrête les comptes des différentes administrations de l'État et est chargée de recueillir, à cet effet tous renseignements et toutes pièces comptables nécessaires. La Cour a le droit de se faire fournir tous états, renseignements et éclaircissements relatifs à la recette des deniers de l'État." […]

"Art. 5. Le compte général de l'État est soumis à la législature avec les observations de la Cour."

The law of 29 October 1846, which confirmed the text of 1830 globally, contained some innovations. Whereas the decree of 1830 contained no provision for the procedure to follow when the Court refused to approve an expense, this was solved by a provision in article 44 of the law of 1846. If the Court finds it should withhold its approval, the reasons for its refusal are examined in the Council of Ministers and if the ministers decide the payment should take place under its responsibility, the Court grants its approval, with reservation, to the disputed expenditure. When it approves expenditure with reservation, the Court notifies Parliament as soon as possible. The law of 29 October 1846 also confirmed the auditing powers regarding the finance of the provinces as provided for by the provincial law of 30 April 1836.
To be efficient, an external audit of the expenditures must begin at the initial stage of the expenditure process and not be limited to the final phase of payment. For this purpose the laws of 20 July 1921 establishing the accounting of the committed expenditures and of 28 June 1963 amending and complementing the laws on the State accounts have entrusted the Court with the audit of the entries relating to the commitments against the budget.
From the interwar years onwards the creation of more and more public service institutions having juristic personality has greatly increased. In order to guarantee information for and the control by Parliament, the law of 16 March 1954 relating to the audit of some public service institutions, which was afterwards complemented by a series of royal decrees, extended the Court's powers to the audit of these institutions with the possibility of organising an audit on the spot.
According to the special law of 16 January 1989 which settled the funding of the Communities and the Regions, an ordinary law will determine (as far as these authorities are concerned) the provisions applicable regarding the organisation of the audit performed by the Court. This special law states that as long as the ordinary law hasn't been enforced, the Communities and Regions are submitted to the existing provisions relating to the organisation of the Court and the Court's audit, those relating to the State accounts as well as the law of 16 March 1954 which governs the audit performed by the Court on the public service institutions. As a matter of fact, the control powers of the Court of Audit towards the community and regional institutions have always been positively stipulated in the different legal texts that established the new elements of the federal Belgium and transferred some powers that belonged previously to the unitary State to those federated entities. As a result, the Court of Audit presently performs an audit on the funds of the Communities and Regions on behalf of their parliaments, just as this is the case for the federal institutions.
The general audit performed by the Court on the operations with regard to the establishment and the recovery of entitlements to be paid to the State, including tax receipts, has been governed by article 180 of the co-ordinated Constitution since 5 May 1993. Under the law of 4 April 1995 this audit is to be carried out on terms agreed upon with the Finance Ministry. Such an agreement was signed between the Court of Audit and the Finance Ministry on 22 December 1995 and published in the Belgian Official Journal on 31 January 1996. It must be added that the Court has to control the administration when implementing tasks of the fiscal legislation, without aiming at detecting or correcting individual errors towards taxpayers.
The law of 10 March 1998 empowered the Court to perform ex post audits over the sound use of public funds and to examine the management of authorities within its remit by the criteria of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose of this last but not least extension of the Court's powers is to enable it to inform Parliament about the way public services are managed and the measures that could be taken by the executive power to improve this management.

Page last updated :
Monday, October 06, 2003