Tasks according to the Act on the Election of the Federal President
Following the introduction of section 24 in the Act on the Election of the Federal President in 2012, the Austrian Court of Audit was assigned numerous administrative tasks:
- The ACA receives the individual lists that persons participating in the election, or natural persons or groups of persons supporting them are obliged to prepare on the following topics:
- Income from donations (broken down by the four points of paragraph 2, indicating name and address of the donor of total amounts of more than 3,500 €),
- Subsidies by political parties
- Sponsorship (income from sponsoring of total amounts of over 12,000 €, with indication of name and address of the sponsor) and
- Advertisement (income from advertisements, if the income generated by individual advertisement orders is higher than 3,500 €, with indication of name and address of the advertiser)
They are to be audited and signed beforehand by an accountant and submitted to the ACA three months after election day at the latest (paragraph 10).
- The ACA audits these lists with regard to correctness of the figures and compliance with the Act on the Election of the Federal President (paragraph 11).
- If the lists comply with the legal provisions (par. 2-5 and 7 Act on the Election of the Federal President), the ACA publishes them on its website (par. 12).
- If there is sufficient reason to assume that pieces of information in the lists are incorrect or incomplete, the ACA requests a statement from the concerned person participating in the election, or natural persons or groups of persons supporting them.
- In case the reasons to assume incorrect or incomplete information are not clarified by the statement, the ACA tasks an accountant so far not involved in the matter with the audit of the list (par. 12 and 13).
- The ACA then publishes its findings in consideration of the audit procedure by the accountant on its website (par.14).
- The Independent Political Parties Transparency Panel decides on the imposition of fines pursuant to the Act on the Election of the Federal President, on the basis of the documents submitted by the ACA (par. 15).
- Furthermore, the ACA retains unlawful donations transferred to it by persons participating in the election, or natural persons or groups of persons supporting them. The submission of unlawful donations must take place immediately, at the latest within three months of election day (par. 9).
- The ACA has to inform about the received amounts in its activity report and transfer them to charitable or scientific institutions (par. 9).
The Austrian Court of Audit points out that it does not have any original rights to on-site examinations and audits in the framework of the tasks conveyed to it pursuant to the Act on the Election of the Federal President.