Limited Advisory Function

Article 22.2 of Law 15/2014, of 16 September, on rationalisation of the public sector and other measures of administrative reform has added an eleventh additional provision to Law 7/1988, of 5 April, on the Functioning of the Court of Audit, in virtue of which preliminary draft laws and draft regulations related to its legal status or to the exercise of its audit or jurisdictional functions must undergo a report of the Court of Audit.

The Court of Audit shall issue its report within a non-extendable term of thirty days. Should the order of remission state the urgency of receiving the report, the deadline for issuing the report will be fifteen days. Exceptionally, the body requesting the report may grant an extension of time, according to the circumstances of the case.

In the case of draft bills, once the report has been issued it will forwarded to the Parliament (Cortes Generales) by the Government.

The Court of Audit, as organ of constitutional relevance and Supreme Audit Institution of the accounts and the economic management of the State and the public sector, will have to be consulted before the adoption of any provision affecting its legal status or the exercise of its functions, as it is the case with any other constitutional body. The report of the Court of Audit in the exercise of this limited advisory function is defined as mandatory, but non-binding.