Internal control system regarding the debt and investment management of the city of Vienna

08.05.2020 - The ACA audited the internal control system

From October 2018 to January 2019, the Austrian Court of Audit (ACA) carried out an audit of the internal control system (ICS) regarding the debt and investment management of the city of Vienna. The audit aimed at assessing the ICS-related regulations and the ICS itself and at evaluating the risk management and the compliance with ICS-related principles in the drafting of internal provisions and processes as well as the internal control of the ICS with regard to debt and investment management. The audit essentially spanned the years from 2013 through 2018.

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Report: Internal Control System Regarding the Debt and Investment Management of the City of Vienna (in German)

Report: Internal Control System Regarding the Debt and Investment Management of the City of Vienna (in German) Download


Central recommendations

  1. If the complexity and the degree of risk of financial transactions were to increase, the requirements set for the debt and investment management of the city of Vienna based on risk management and ICS-related principles should also be increased accordingly.
  2. The scope of application of the financial management policy should be extended in order to provide for provisions for the implementation of risk-mitigating ICS measures (e.g. separation of functions, four-eyes principle) for all financial transactions of the city of Vienna.
  3. In the spirit of the four-eyes principle, provisions should be made for the exclusive granting of collective powers of signature as regards the bank accounts that are relevant for debt and investment management.
  4. In the spirit of the four-eyes principle, only collective powers of signature should be granted for securities accounts and securities clearing accounts used in debt and investment management. A corresponding withdrawal of individual powers of signature should be carried out.
  5. Without delay, it should be rendered technically impossible to carry out modifications of the payment-relevant data generated from the budgetary accounting system for electronic payments. The possibility of a manual processing of payment orders in the electronic payment system – without prior entry into the budgetary accounting system – for the direct execution by the Vienna Municipal Department for Financial Affairs (MA 5) without involving the Vienna Municipal Department for Accounting Services, Duties and Charges (MA 6) should be denied.

Today, the ACA also published the report "Wiener Linien – Modernization of the U4 Underground Line" (available in German).