Method of audit
The Office puts three questions, in physical units, to any body that has consumed resources held in common.
The three questions
- Did resources reach the purposes the plan assigned to them
- Purpose
- Were the ceilings for the period observed
- Ceiling
- Were the accounts kept truthfully
- Truth
The units
Energy, materials, water, land, emissions, labour time and the useful life of goods are the primary units of the plan, and every ceiling is expressed in the same terms. An audit counts quantities and converts them into no common unit. The Republic maintains no monetary unit of account.
| Quantity | Unit | Source of the figure |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | GWh | Physical accounts of the body audited |
| Materials | t | Receipts, stock and discard records |
| Water | Ml | Abstraction and discharge meters |
| Land | ha | Spatial plan of the territory |
| Emissions | t CO2e | Ecological accounts |
| Labour time | h | Workplace records |
| Useful life | years | Plan entry against the retirement record |
The course of an audit
| Stage | What happens | What becomes public |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Scope, questions and method published with the reference | Everything, on the day |
| Collection | Records requisitioned, systems inspected, testimony taken | The list of what was required, and any refusal |
| Verification | Physical count against the accounts, on the premises | The method of counting |
| Draft finding | Put to the body audited for correction of fact only | Nothing. The draft leaves the Office in no other form. |
| Publication | Findings, quantities, persons responsible, remedies proposed | The report in full, with dissents of the college |
| Answer | Sixty days for a public written answer upon each point | The answer, or the record of its absence |
The draft is put for correction of fact alone. No organ may alter a report. A disagreement about a conclusion is answered after publication.
Audit of a programme in progress
Article 250(3) permits an audit at any stage, and in no case is an audit confined to a period after the completion of a programme. An audit opened while a programme runs proceeds on the routes of Article 250(2) and through the stages set out above.
Two matters are settled at the opening and published with the reference. The scope states the part of the period already elapsed and the quantities already consumed against the ceiling fixed for the whole of it. The method states how the count is taken while work continues, since stocks, plant and labour time are in movement on the day of the physical count.
A finding on a running programme is published under Article 242(1) in the form required of any other finding, and the body audited answers within sixty days upon each point under Article 242(4). Where the finding discloses a departure from the plan or from a ceiling, the Office transmits it to the National Planning Congress under Article 251(3). Any correction applies to the remainder of the period, and the ceiling for the current period is altered by the bodies that adopt the plan.
An audit suspends no activity. Work continues while the audit runs, and it halts only where consumption exhausts an allocation, in which case Article 100(2) operates independently of the audit.