Officials' roles

The Public Audit Office’s Board is a collegiate body comprising seven Board Members (síndics), who are chosen by Parliament through a qualified three-fifths-majority vote for a six-year period. The Board is chaired by the Chief Member (síndic major or síndica major) with the Audit Office’s Secretary General in attendance.

The Board's functions include the following:

• To approve the audit reports, annual reports, official statements, and pronouncements issued by the Public Audit Office and, in general, carry out the audit function with which the institution is charged.
• To propose the appointment of one if its members as Chief Member or Chair of the Board.
• To designate the Board Members who shall make up the Steering Committee.
• To apportion out the sectoral departments that the Board Members are to take charge of.
• To approve the Audit Office’s Annual Programme of Activities.
• To authorise cooperation agreements with the Spanish Court of Audit, with other external audit organisations or with any other type of organisation or institution.
• To appoint and dismiss the Secretary General.
• To issue the rules and regulations it deems necessary in relation to the audit reports and the internal running of the Audit Office.
• To approve the Public Audit Office’s annual report and its accounts.
• To make the necessary provisions in order to fulfil the aims which current legislation confers on the Public Audit Office.

The Steering Committee (Comissió de Govern) is comprised of the Chief Board Member and two other Board members designated by the Board. The main functions assigned to it by law are:

• To approve amendments to the budget, except for supplementary or extraordinary budget appropriations, and report these to the Board and to the government department in charge of financial affairs.
• To accept assignments which the Spanish Court of Audit wishes to delegate, and allocate the work involved.
• To determine the general rules for working conditions of Audit Office personnel, within the framework of the institution's internal regulations.
• To conduct disciplinary action with regard to Audit Office personnel.
• To coordinate the Audit Office’s support services to ensure the good governance and smooth running of the institution.
• To undertake other functions delegated by the Board.

The current Steering Committee members are the Chairman, Miquel Salazar, and Board members Anna Tarrach and Manel Rodríguez.

The Board members are chosen by Parliament, through a three-fifths majority vote, for a six-year term which may be renewed just once.

Board members are appointed from among civil servants of corps or categories requiring education to higher degree level, or from lawyers, economists or professors of commerce, all of acknowledged competence and with more than fifteen years of professional experience. Those who, in the preceding four years, have been government ministers, departmental secretaries general, comptrollers general or senior officials charged with ordering payments or handling the treasury of the Catalan Government may not be appointed as members of the Public Audit Office.

Anybody taking on the role of Board Member is subject to a job compatibility regime, as laid down in the Public Audit Office Act.

It pertains to Board members to:

• Submit to the Board their proposal for the Annual Programme of Activities for the department they have been assigned.
• Organise and direct the department they have been assigned.
• Present to the Board the draft audit reports and other documents drawn up under their leadership.
• Propose to the Board the undertaking of ad hoc reports, work on them and draw up the corresponding draft report to be presented to the Board.
• Ensure procedures are complied with and sufficient checks are carried out to support the conclusions of the reports.
• Prepare proposals for pronouncements that have been requested within the scope of statutory provisions.
• Carry out other functions determined by the Board.

The Chief Board Member has the presiding or chairing role and is the institution’s highest representative both internally and externally. He or she is chosen by the Audit Office Board from among its members and is appointed by the President (Premier) of Catalonia for a three-year period. The specific statutory powers invested in the Audit Office Chair include the following:

• To represent the Public Audit Office in all spheres and chair its institutional or official events.
• To call and chair meetings of the Board and the Steering Committee by establishing the agenda and directing the discussions.
• To ensure that decisions approved by the Board and the Steering Committee are carried out.
• To have a casting vote in the event of a tie in Board and Steering Committee decisions.
• To send audit reports to Parliament within six weeks of the date of their being approved by the Board.
• To have charge of the internal governance of the Audit Office, the management and overall inspection of staff and the functions relating to the appointment, hiring and general governance of staff.
• To have overall charge of personnel management including functions relating to the appointment, hiring and general executive management and administration of staff.
• To be in charge of Audit Office procurement; to authorise expenditures, acknowledge liabilities, and order payments.
• To authorise, with their countersignature, the minutes of meetings and all manner of certificates issued by the Secretary General.

In charge of the General Secretariat is the Secretary General, who is appointed and dismissed by the Board. The Secretary General is chosen, at the proposal of the Chair, from among individuals fulfilling the qualifications required by law.

The Secretary General’s main functions are:

• To provide advice and assistance to Public Audit Office officeholders.
•  In general, to fulfil all the functions aimed at ensuring that the Board, the Standing Committee and the Chair are able to exercise their powers relating to the internal running of the Audit Office.
• To attend, in a non-voting capacity, the meetings of the Board and the Steering Committee.
• To draft and distribute the agenda for Board meetings, in accordance with the instructions given by the Chair.
• To draw up the minutes of the Board and Steering Committee meetings and, once they have been approved, to sign them, with the Chairman's countersignature.
• To issue certificates providing proof of minutes of meetings, agreements and documents under their custody.
• To keep the General Register of incoming and outgoing documents and Audit Office documentation.
• To undertake all other personnel and administrative functions delegated to them by any organ of the Audit Office.