CELEX: 31975Q0375
Language: en
Date: 1975-06-30 00:00:00
Title: 75/375/Euratom, ECSC, EEC: Commission Regulation of 30 June 1975 on measures of implementation of certain provisions of the Financial Regulation of 25 April 1973

1 . 7 . 75                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 170/1
                                                               II
                                          (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                                   COMMISSION
                                               COMMISSION REGULATION
                                                        of 30 June 1975
                  ON MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE
                                     FINANCIAL REGULATION OF 25 APRIL 1973
                                                 (75/375/Euratom, ECSC, EEC)
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                    HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
  COMMUNITIES,
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
 European Coal and Steel Community, and in                                                 TITLE I
  particular Article 78 (c) and (f) thereof;
                                                                                DELEGATION OF POWERS
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
 European Economic Community, and in particular
 Articles 205 and 209 thereof;                                             (Article 18 of the Financial Regulation)
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
 European Atomic Energy Community, and in
 particular Articles 179 and 183 thereof;                                                  Article 1
 Having regard to the Council Regulation of 25 April              The acts by which powers are delegated pursuant to
 1973 (*) being the Financial Regulation applicable to            the provisions of Article 18 of the Financial
 the general budget of the European Communities, and              Regulation shall designate by name those members
 in particular Article 118 thereof;                               of staff of the institution authorized to sign for and
                                                                  on behalf of the delegating authority.
Having consulted the European Parliament and the
 Council ;                                                        In such acts reference shall be made to the provisions
                                                                  of the rules of procedure as referred to in the third
Having regard to the Opinion of the Court of Justice              paragraph of Article 18 setting out the conditions
and of the Economic and Social Committee;                         governing the delegation of powers.
 Whereas certain provisions of Articles 18 , 19 , 23 , 40,
 41 , 42, 45 , 49 , 56, 57, 59, 62, 64, 67, 68 , 74, 78 and                                Article 2
103 of the Financial Regulation of 25 April 1973
provide explicitly that detailed rules for their
implementation be drawn up ;                                      The said acts, accompanied by a specimen signature
                                                                  of the official to whom the powers have been
Whereas the drawing-up of such rules will not                     delegated, shall be communicated:
preclude the drawing-up at a later date of other
implementing rules for which no formal provision is               — to the delegatee;
made in the Financial Regulation but which might
subsequently appear expedient,                                    — to the accounting officer, who may make no
                                                                     payment which has been authorized by officials
(x ) OJ No L 116, 1 . 5 . 1973 .                                     not empowered to do so;
 ---pagebreak--- No L 170/2                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                1 . 7. 75
— to the financial controller, who shall be                     financial controller, who shall decide on the powers
     responsible inter alia for verifying the legality          to be delegated to them. They shall bear the
     and due and proper form of the items of revenue             responsibility for the approvals granted by them in
     and expenditure;                                           pursuance of the powers delegated to them.
— to the authorizing officers, in the case of a
     delegation of powers by the financial controller                                    Article 7
     or by the accounting officer, or of a sub­
     delegation of powers by authorizing officers               The financial controller and the assistant financial
     within the limits of the powers delegated to               controllers shall be chosen by the institution from
     them ;                                                      among nationals of the Member States solely on
                                                                 grounds of their particular qualifications .
— to the Audit Board.
The acts terminating such delegations of powers
shall be likewise so communicated.                                                       Article 8
                                                                 The institution shall place at the disposal of the
                           Article 3                             financial controller the services necessary for the
                                                                 proper discharge of his control duties.
In every case the act of delegation shall specify the
limits within which the delegatees are authorized to
draw up revenue orders, proposals for commitment                                         Article 9
of expenditure and payment orders, the numbers of
the Articles and items in respect of which the powers
                                                                 All decisions relating to the delegation and
have been delegated and, where appropriate, the
                                                                 subdelegation of powers by the financial controller
length of time for which such powers have been
                                                                 or by the assistant financial controllers shall comply
delegated.
                                                                 with the provisions of Articles 1 to 3 above.
                           Article 4
                                                                                         Article 10
 Acting in accordance with the provisions of the
 Financial Regulation and of this Regulation, each               In carrying out his control duties, the financial
 institution     shall    adopt the          measures    for      controller shall be completely independent and shall
 administering the appropriations it deems necessary              be responsible only to the institution. He may not
 for the proper implementation of the section of the              receive any instructions as regards the execution of
budget for which it is responsible.                               the duties assigned to him pursuant to the provisions
                                                                  of the Financial Regulation in virtue of his
                           TITLE II
                                                                  appointment.
        RULES APPLICABLE TO THE FINANCIAL
                                                                  The provisions of the preceding subparagraph shall
       CONTROLLER AND TO THE ASSISTANT                            also apply to the assistant financial controllers,
                FINANCIAL CONTROLLERS                             within the limits of the powers delegated to them by
                                                                  their immediate superior, the financial controller.
           (Article 19 of the Financial Regulation)
                                                                                         Article 11
                            Article 5
                                                                  The financial controller may present reports to the
 Each institution shall appoint, by a reasoned                    institution, at any time and on any subject having
 decision, a financial controller who shall be the                financial implications, especially as regards sound
  official in charge of the control of commitments and            financial management.
  authorization of all expenditure and also the control
  of all revenue falling within the budget of the
 Communities       for   which    the   institution  is  the                              Article 12
  authorizing body.
                                                                   The financial controller and the assistant financial
                            Article 6                              controllers shall have access to all supporting
                                                                   documents and to all other documents relating to the
  The institution may appoint one or more assistant                expenditure and revenue operations which require to
  financial controllers. The latter shall report to the            be checked. They may carry out on-the-spot checks.
 ---pagebreak---    1 . 7 . 75                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 170/3
                            Article 13                                                    TITLE III
  The liability of the financial controller and of the                   REGISTRATION OF REVENUE ORDERS
  assistant financial controllers to disciplinary action
  and,        where  appropriate,      to    payment     of                (Article 23 of the Financial Regulation)
  compensation , within the meaning of Article 77 of
  the Financial Regulation, can be invoked only by
  the institution itself, in the following circumstances :                                 Article 15
  The institution shall take a reasoned decision which            A revenue order must be drawn up in respect of
  gives the grounds therefor to conduct an inquiry.               every document establishing the amount of a debt
  This decision shall be communicated to the person               due to the institution and must be submitted to the
  concerned and, if he is an assistant financial                  financial   controller .for approval       and to the
  controller, to the financial controller. The institution        accounting officer for registration before notification
  may, on its own responsibility, instruct one or more            of the debt to the debtor.
  officials of a grade not lower than that of the
 member of staff concerned and not carrying out the
  duties of a financial controller, authorizing officer or                                Article 16
 accounting officer, to conduct the inquiry. During
  the inquiry the person concerned and, if he is an               If a document or decision giving rise to a debt
 assistant financial controller, the financial controller,        cannot be accompanied by a document as aforesaid
 must of necessity be given a hearing.                           because     the   amount     of   the  debt   cannot  be
                                                                 determined at the time, that document or decision
  The report on the inquiry shall be transmitted to the          shall be submitted to the financial controller for
 person concerned and, if he is an assistant financial           prior approval and communicated to the accounting
 controller, to the financial controller. The' person            officer.
 concerned shall then be given a hearing by the
 institution with regard to that report.
                                                                                          Article 17
 On the basis of the report and of the hearing, the
 institution shall take a decision to accord the person
 concerned a discharge in respect of the matter                  The authorizing officer and the financial controller
 examined or a decision under Articles 22 and 86 to              must be informed as soon as possible of each
 89 of the Staff Regulations. In either case the                 payment received. If in respect of any payment there
 decision must be a reasoned one. Decisions involving            exists no revenue order drawn up pursuant to
 disciplinary action and/or pecuniary penalties shall            Article 15, the authorizing officer shall draw up
                                                                 such an order forthwith .
 be communicated to the person concerned and, for
 information purposes, to the other institutions, the
Audit Board and, if the person concerned is an
                                                                                          Article 18
 assistant financial controller, to the financial
 controller.
                                                                 Registration in the budgetary accounts of the
 The person concerned may lodge an appeal with the               revenue orders and of the sums received in respect
Court of Justice, in accordance with the provisions              thereof shall be carried out by the central accounts
of the Staff Regulations, in respect of such decisions .         department of the institution in such manner as to
                                                                 ensure a proper oversight of all debts due to the
                           Article 14                            institution, with a view in particular to enabling the
                                                                 following to be readily ascertained:
Without prejudice to the appeal procedures provided
for in the Staff Regulations and in the conditions of            — the measures taken giving rise to a debt in favour
employment of other servants, the financial                          of the institution ;
controller and the assistant financial controllers may           — the amounts of such debts;
lodge an appeal with the Court of Justice with
regard to any act relating to their control duties .             — the due dates for payment of the debts ;
Such appeals must be lodged within three months                  — the debts duly discharged;
from the date of notification of the act in question.
                                                                 — the debts which have fallen due and remain
The provisions of the preceding subparagraph shall                   unpaid.
apply also to appeals by the institution against its
financial controller        or    its  assistant  financial
                                                                                          Article 19
controllers .
Appeals shall be investigated and heard as provided              The central accounts department must be so
in Article 91 (5 ) of the Staff Regulations.                     organized that the financial controller is able to
 ---pagebreak--- No L 170/4                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                1 . 7. 75
check, at any given moment, that the registration of            appropriations committed and to be deducted from
sums in the course of collection and of the revenue             those appropriations previously reserved.
orders relating thereto are correct, thus enabling him
to establish those matters required of him by Article
23 of the Financial Regulation.                                                          Article 23
                          TITLE IV
                                                                Provisional commitments, within the meaning of
                                                                Article 40 ( 1 ) of the Financial Regulation, shall be
            COMMITMENT OF EXPENDITURE                           strictly limited to current expenditure. Individual
                                                                commitments covered by such provisional
           (Article 40 of the Financial Regulation)              commitments do not require to be submitted
                                                                 separately for approval to the financial controller.
                          Article 20                             In the case of provisional commitments, the
                                                                 authorizing officer shall check, on his own
Before taking any measure which may involve                     responsibility, that the individual commitments do
expenditure, the competent authorizing officer must              not exceed the provisional commitment by which
present the financial controller with a proposal for a           they are covered.
commitment of expenditure. Such proposals shall
in principle be drawn up in accordance with a                    The existence of such provisional commitments does
standard form to be adopted by unanimous                         not imply that appropriations can be carried forward
agreement by the authorizing officer, the accounting             automatically as provided in Article 6 of the
officer and the financial controller. Such proposals             Financial Regulation, unless they correspond at the
for the commitment of expenditure must give the                  end of the financial year to financial commitments
information referred to in Article 41 of the Financial           actually entered into before the deadlines laid down
Regulation.                                                      in the Financial Regulation.
                           Article 21                                                    Article 24
 Draft decisions of a general nature (*) issued by the _         If in the case of certain measures which may involve
institution and containing an obligation to incur                expenditure, no exact figures can be given for the
expenditure shall be considered to be measures                   expenditure when the relevant proposal for a
which may involve expenditure.                                   commitment is presented to the financial controller
                                                                 and communicated to the accounting officer, the
                                                                 authorizing officer must estimate the expected
                           Article 22                            expenditure, and set out in his proposal for a
                                                                 commitment the grounds on which he has arrived at
 If a decision of principle issued by the institution            his estimate.
 must precede a given commitment of expenditure,
 the draft decision of principle shall be transmitted to
 the financial controller for prior approval. When the                                   Article 25
 institution has adopted the draft decision, an amount
 corresponding to the expenditure to be incurred shall
 be reserved thereto out of the appropriations.                  All proposals for the commitment of expenditure
                                                                 must    be   submitted   to   the  financial  controller
 At the time of commitment of the expenditure, after             sufficiently early to enable any comments which he
 approval by the financial controller, the amount so             might wish to make to be taken into consideration.
 reserved shall be released to cover the corresponding
 commitment.
                                                                                         Article 26
 The draft document establishing the commitment,
 drawn up in accordance with the decision to incur                Proposals for the Commitment of expenditure must
 the expenditure, shall be the subject of a proposal              be accompanied by all relevant supporting
 for a commitment of expenditure which shall be                   documents and, where appropriate, by any other
 submitted to the financial controller for prior                  documents which are necessary to enable the
 approval        and     subsequently       registered      as    financial controller to establish the matters required
  (*) This expression is to be interpreted as follows : 'Every    of him, as well as by any other information such as
      measure which, by its very nature, may involve              would enable the financial controller to asses.s the
      expenditure, without any further decision being             transaction from the point of view of sound financial
      required'.                                                  management.
 ---pagebreak---   1 . 7. 75                              Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 170/5
                              TITLE V                                                      Article 31
             REGISTRATION OF PROPOSALS FOR
         COMMITMENT OF EXPENDITURE AFTER
                                                                   The approval given shall be deemed to be proof of
      APPROVAL BY THE FINANCIAL CONTROLLER
                                                                   all the points listed under (a) to (d) of Article 42 of
                                                                   the Financial Regulation.
            (Article 41 of the Financial Regulation)
                                                                                           Article 32
                             Article 27
                                                                   If, pursuant to Article 43 of the Financial
  Proposals for commitments shall be registered by the             Regulation, the higher authority of the institution
  institution's central accounts department. It must be            overrides the financial controller's refusal to give his
  possible to ascertain at any given moment which                  approval, the decision shall be transmitted to the
  budgetary items or headings contain the reserved                 authorizing officer, who shall return the proposal for
  appropriations, the amounts committed, the                       a commitment of expenditure together with the
  payments already made in that connection, the                    decision to the financial controller. The proposal for
  payments still to be made and the available                      commitment, together with the decision to override,
. appropriations .                                                 shall be registered in accordance with the provisions
                                                                   of Article 41 of the Financial Regulation.
                              Article 28
                                                                                           Article 33
  The central accounts department must be so
  organized as to guarantee that the financial                     If the Financial Controller considers inadequate or
  controller is able to check that the commitments and             incomplete the supporting documents provided for
  payments have been registered accurately, so that he             in Articles 45 and 49 of the Financial Regulation and
  can, at any given moment, ascertain the extent to                further defined in Articles 34 to 40 below, he shall
  which the appropriations have been utilized and                  postpone his approval and return the proposal to the
  inform the authorizing officers of his findings.                 authorizing officer, specifying the supporting
                                                                   evidence required.
                              TITLE VI
    APPROVAL OF PROPOSALS FOR COMMITMENT                                                  TITLE VII
                        OF EXPENDITURE
                                                                                  SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
              (Article 42 of the Financial Regulation)
                                                                        (Articles 45 and 49 of the Financial Regulation)
                              Article 29
                                                                                           Article 34
  Subject to the provisions of Article 30 below,
  approval shall be given by the placing on the                    As regards supplies in general, the following in
  proposal for a commitment of expenditure of the                  particular shall be considered to be a valid
  signature of the financial controller or of an assistant         supporting document:
  financial controller. In addition the words 'approved
  by the financial controller' shall be stamped on the             — the invoice drawn up by the supplier,
  proposal, and the date on which approval was given                    accompanied as appropriate by one of the copies
  shall be shown .                                                     of the document giving rise to the Community's
                                                                       obligation (e.g. order form or contract).
                                                                   In every case the document drawn up by the supplier
                              Article 30                           must state :
  In urgent cases such approval may be given in a note             — the nature and quantity of the supplies or, if
  or telex message or by any other means which leaves                   appropriate, a description of the services
  no doubt as to the fact that the proposal for a                      rendered in that connection,
  commitment of expenditure in question has been
  approved.                                                        — the unit price and total price,
 ---pagebreak--- No L 170/ 6                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               1 . 7 . 75
— any exemption from charges and taxes and the                       contractor, invoices, requests from the
     amount of any charges, taxes and customs duties                 management committee in the case of contracts
     in respect of the supply of the goods included in               by way of joint venture, or any other document
     the price.                                                      substantiating expenditure). The final payment
                                                                     must of necessity be accompanied by a document
In addition, the authorizing officer, or the official to             drawn up by the authorizing officer certifying
whom he has delegated authority, must on such                        that the service has been rendered .
document :
— declare that the supplies have been duly received,                                     Article 37
     with the date and place of such receipt,
                                                               In the case of expenditure on staff, the following
— in cases where the supplies are required to be               shall be considered to be supporting documents :
     entered in the inventory, declare that they have
      been so entered,                                          ( a) in respect of the monthly salary:
— declare that all items in the invoice have been                    — the complete list of staff, giving all the
     checked,                                                            components of the remuneration. This list
                                                                         shall be attached to the payment voucher ;
— in cases where the Opinion of the Advisory
     Committee      on   Purchases     and   Contracts   is          — a form (personal information sheet) showing
     required, record of such Opinion.                                   any change occurring in any component of
                                                                         the remuneration. Each form shall be drawn
The like items may be given on a goods receipt                           up on the basis of the individual decisions
certificate .                                                            taken in respect of the particular member of
                                                                         the staff concerned;
                          Article 35                                 — in the case of recruitments or appointments, a
                                                                         certified true copy of the decision in respect
In the case of services, the invoice (or other note of                   of recruitment or appointment shall accom­
charges) drawn up by the person providing the                            pany the first salary payment;
services shall be considered to be a valid supporting
document.                                                       (b) in respect of other remunerations:
                                                                     (staff paid on an hourly or daily basis)
The document must :
                                                                     — a statement drawn up by the authorizing
— state the nature of the service, and where                             officer showing the days and hours of
     appropriate its unit price, together with the total                 attendance ;
     price and any exemption from charges and taxes             ( c) in respect of overtime:
     or, in so far as this is possible, the amount of any
     charges and taxes in respect of the service                     — a statement signed by the official empowered
     included in the price;                                              to do so certifying the amount of overtime
                                                                         worked by the member of staff;
— bear the words 'passed for payment' placed on it
                                                                (d) in respect of mission expenses :
     by the authorizing officer or by the official to                — the travel order duly signed by the competent
     whom he has delegated authority, certifying that                    authority;
     the service has been rendered properly and that
     all the items in the invoice (or other note of                  — the 'detailed account of mission expenses'
     charges) have been checked.                                         showing, in particular, the place of mission,
                                                                         the date and time of departure from and
                         Article 36
                                                                         arrival at the place of mission, travel
                                                                         expenses, subsistence expenses, and other
                                                                         expenses duly authorized on the production
In the case of study and research contracts, the                         of supporting documents ; this detailed
following shall be considered to be valid supporting                     account shall be signed by the official on
documents :
                                                                         mission and by the administrative superior to
                                                                         whom the appropriate powers have been
( a) a copy of the contract and of any supplementary                     delegated ;
     agreements, to be attached to the first order for
     payment ;                                                  ( e) in respect of other expenditure on staff:
                                                                     — the supporting documents referring to the
(b ) any document which, pursuant to the financial                       decision on which the expenditure is based
     provisions in the contract, establishes entitlement                 and giving all the components of the
     to the corresponding payments (requests from the                    expenditure.
 ---pagebreak--- 1.7.75                              Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 170/ 7
                         Article 38                            staff, one signature of necessity being that of the
                                                               accounting officer, an assistant accounting officer or
In the case of all commitments which involve                   an administrator of advance funds .
payments in instalments, a certified true copy of the
Contract shall be attached to the first payment
voucher. Reference to that document and to the                                        Article 45
preceding payment(s) shall be made on the other
payment vouchers .                                             As a general rule, payments :
                                                               — of the monthly remuneration of officials and
                         Article 39                                other staff;
If a single supporting document covers several                 — of expenditure relating to supplies or services
payments, all the payment vouchers shall bear a                    exceeding 100 units of account;
reference to the original document.
                                                               must be made by cheque or by postal or bank
                                                               transfer  order .
                         Article 40
Except in the cases referred to above, if an original
supporting document cannot be produced, a certified
true copy may be substituted for it by the                                            TITLE IX
authorizing officer, who must explain why the
                                                                             ADVANCE FUNDS OFFICES
original could not be produced and must certify that
the payment has not been made.
                                                                      (Article 57 of the Financial Regulation)
                        TITLE VIII
                                                                                      Article 46
     BANK OR POST OFFICE GIRO ACCOUNTS
                                                               The setting up of advance funds offices shall be
         (Article 56 of the Financial Regulation)              subject to a decision by the authorities set out in
                                                               Article 18 of the Financial Regulation, on a proposal
                                                               from the authorizing officer, after a favourable
                         Article 41                            opinion from the accounting officer and from the
                                                               financial  controller.
When carrying out financial transactions the
institution may open bank and/or post office giro
accounts in the Community countries and where                                         Article 47
necessary in non-member countries .
                                                               The appointment of an administrator of advance
                                                               funds shall be subject to a decision by the authorities
                         Article 42                            set out in Article 18 of the Financial Regulation, on
                                                               a proposal from the authorizing officer, after a
 The institution may also hold accounts with the               favourable opinion from the accounting officer.
bank of issue in every Member State or with the
approved financial institution.                                Such decision shall indicate the responsibilities of the
                                                               administrator of advance funds .
                         Article 43
                                                                                      Article 48
 The institution shall communicate to all the financial         The decisions referred to in Articles 46 and 47 above
institutions with which it holds accounts the names            shall be communicated to the authorizing officers,
and specimen signatures of the staff specifically              the financial controller, the accounting officer and
authorized by it to open and operate such accounts .           the Audit Board .
                         Article 44                                                   Article 49
 The operation of such accounts shall require the              The decision setting up an advance fund office shall
signatures of two duly authorized members of the               specify, in particular :
 ---pagebreak--- No L 170/ 8                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                   1 . 7. 75
 (a) the maximum amount of the advance which can                                         TITLE X
      be granted ;
                                                                     INVITATIONS TO COMPETITIVE TENDER
(b ) whether a bank or post office giro account is to
      be opened in the name of the institution                           (Article 59 of the Financial Regulation)
      concerned;
 (c) the nature and maximum amount of every
      payment which may be made without prior                                            Article 55
      authorization ;
                                                              Invitations to competitive tender shall, as far as
 ( d) the time within which supporting documents             possible, follow a standard form or a standard text.
      must be produced and the procedure for
      producing them ;
(e) the procedure to be applied in the event that an                                     Article 56
      advance has to be repaid;
                                                             Every invitation to tender shall in particular :
(f) the deadline for final adjustment and settlement
      in respect of operations effected by the advance        (a) specify the procedure for submitting tenders,
      funds offices .                                               including in particular any requirement as to the
                                                                    use of a standard reply form ;
                        Article 50                           (b ) state whether the Protocol on privileges and
                                                                    immunities applies and make reference to the
Every administrator of advance funds shall be                       general conditions applicable to the contract
responsible to the authorizing officer for the                      concerned       (supplies,    work,   services       or
collection of sums due to it, and to the accounting                publications ) and to any document containing
officer for the making of payments.                                 conditions specifically applicable to the particular
                                                                    contract concerned ;
                        Article 51                           ( c) ' include a clause stating that the submission of a
                                                                   tender implies acceptance of the relevant
He shall keep account of the funds at his disposal                  conditions ;
and of the expenditure effected, in accordance with
the instructions of the accounting officer.                  ( d) specify the terms under which an inspection may
                                                                    be made, to be set out in detail in the case of on­
                                                                    the-spot inspections ;
                        Article 52
                                                             (e) specify the period during which a tender will
The administrator of advance funds shall make all                  remain valid and may not be varied in any
the necessary provisions to safeguard the funds at his             respect ;
disposal .
                                                             (f) specify the penalties for failure to comply with
                                                                   the provisions of the contract;
                        Article 53
                                                             (g) specify the details which must be contained in
Without prejudice to the control carried out by the                the invoices ( or in the supporting documents
financial controller, the accounting officer must                  thereto) in accordance with the provisions of
himself, or through an assistant accounting officer,               Title VII ;
carry out checks, which should normally be effected
on the spot and without warning, on the funds                (h) prohibit any contact between the institution and
allocated to the administrators of advance funds and               tenderers save, by way of special exception,
on their accounts .
                                                                   under the following conditions :
                                                                   1 . before the closing date for the submission of
                        Article 54                                     tenders :
The accounting officer and the financial controller                    — at the instance of tenderers :
shall inform each other of the results of their checks
and shall communicate them to the authorizing                              additional information solely for the
officer.                                                                   purpose of clarifying the nature of the
 ---pagebreak--- 1.7.75                              Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 170/9
            invitation to tender may be communicated               the post-mark to be conclusive evidence as to
            to tenderers ;                                         such date ( tenders submitted by post must be
                                                                   registered) ;
       — at the instance of the institution :
                                                              — or by delivery in person to the institution:
            if the departments of the institution notice
            an error, a lack of precision, an omission             in such case the invitation to tender must state
            or any other type of material defect in the            the date and time by which tenders must be
            text of the invitation to tender, they may,             submitted and specify the department to which
            in the manner identical to that applicable              they must be delivered against a signed and dated
            in respect of the original invitation,                  receipt.
            inform accordingly the persons concerned ;
                                                               The date must in both cases be the same.
    2. after the tenders have been opened and at the
        instance of the departments of the institution :       In order to maintain secrecy and to avoid any
                                                               difficulties, the invitation to tender must include a
        if some clarification is required in connection        provision as follows :
        with a tender, or if obvious material errors
        contained in the tender must be corrected,             'Tenders must be submitted in a sealed envelope it­
        then the institution may contact the tenderer.         self enclosed within a second sealed envelope. The
                                                               inner envelope shall bear, in addition to the name of
                                                               the department to which it is addressed, as indicated
                                                               in the call for tender, the words "Call for tender —
                         Article 57                            Not to be opened by the registry". If self-adhesive
                                                               envelopes are used they shall be sealed with adhesive
In every case where contact has been made under the            tape across which the sender shall place his
conditions provided for above ( Article 56 (h)), a             signature.'
'note for the file' shall be drawn up and such
contact shall be mentioned in the report to be
submitted subsequently to the Advisory Committee                                        Article 61
on Purchases and Contracts.
                                                               Every tender must be opened.
                                                               Tenders which do not satisfy the conditions laid
                         Article 58                            down in the invitation to tender shall be eliminated.
The general conditions applicable to the proposed
contract shall be joined with the invitation to tender.                                 Article 62
Any document containing conditions specifically
applicable to the particular contract concerned shall          All tenderers shall be informed of the decision taken
also be so joined.                                             with regard to their tenders.
                         Article 59                                                     TITLE XI
The deadline for the submission of tenders shall be                RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR THE ADVISORY
fixed according to the nature of the contract, and              COMMITTEE ON PURCHASES AND CONTRACTS
shall be dependent on the length of time necessary                                       (ACPC)
for the preparation of the reply to the invitation to
tender.                                                           (Articles 62 and 103 of the Financial Regulation)
                                                                                        Article 63
                         Article 60
                                                                The ACPC shall be required to give its opinion in an
Tenderers may submit tenders :                                  advisory capacity, in accordance with the provisions
                                                               of Articles 62, 63 and 103 of the Financial
— either by post :                                              Regulation, on :
    in such case the invitation to tender must specify          (a) all proposed contracts for work, supplies or
    that the relevant date shall be that of postage,                services involving amounts exceeding those given
 ---pagebreak---    No L 170/ 10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 1 . 7 . 75
          in  Articles   62   and    103    of   the    Financial                               Article 66
         Regulation and on proposed purchases of
         immovable property, irrespective of the amount                In every case the committee shall give an opinion,
         involved;                                                     which shall be signed by the Chairman. Such
                                                                       opinions shall be communicated to the departments
   ( b ) any proposed agreement supplementary to any                   concerned .
         contract as referred to in ( a) whenever the effect
         of such supplementary agreement would be to
         alter the amount involved in the original contract ;                                   Article 67
   ( c) any proposed supplementary agreement the effect               Every Advisory Committee on Purchases and
         which    would    be  to   raise   the   total  amount        Contracts shall draw up its own rules of procedure,
         involved in a contract already concluded above               which shall be communicated to the Advisory
         the limits referred to in ( a);                              Committees on Purchases and Contracts in the other
                                                                      institutions .
   (d) the standard forms and texts for invitations to
         competitive tender and on any proposed texts
         involving an appreciable deviation from such
         standard texts ;                                                                      TITLE XII
  (e) proposed invitations to tender which are                        PRELIMINARY DEPOSIT BY WAY OF GUARANTEE
         particularly important or are of a special nature ;                    OF PERFORMANCE OF CONTRACTS
  ( f) questions arising at the time of conclusion or in                       (Article 64 of the Financial Regulation)
        the course of performance of contracts (e .g.
        cancellation of orders, requests for waiver of
        penalties for 'delay, departures from the                                              Article 68
         specification and waiver of general conditions of
        contract), should the matter be sufficiently                  When, by way of guarantee of performance of the
        serious to justify a request for an opinion ;                 contract, the supplier or contractor is required to
                                                                      provide a preliminary deposit, such deposit must in
  (g) at the request of the competent authorizing                     principle consist of a payment made to the
        officer or of a member of the Advisory.                       institution in the same currency as that prescribed
        Committee on Purchases and Contracts, proposed                for the payment to be made for the supplies or
        contracts involving an amount below the limits               work.
        referred to in ( a), where he considers that such
        contracts involve questions of principle or are of
        a special nature.                                                                      Article 69
                                                                     Such preliminary deposit may be replaced by a joint
                             Article 64                              and several personal guarantee given by a third
                                                                     party approved by the institution.
 The Advisory Committee on Purchases and Contracts
 shall make :
                                                                                              Article 70
 ( a) recommendations with regard to the general
        supply policy both within and outside the
        Community and shall carry out, or have carried               The usual supporting documents accompanying the
        out, such investigations and studies as may be               first payment order drawn up pursuant to a contract
        necessary in that respect;                                   requiring the provision of a preliminary deposit shall
                                                                     be supplemented by a copy, certified true by the
(b) recommendations            with      regard    to    general     accounting officer, of the receipt issued when the
        conditions for purchases and contracts .                     preliminary deposit was paid, or by a copy, certified
                                                                     true by the accounting officer, of a declaration from
                                                                     the establishment or third party providing the
                             Article 65                              guarantee .
The files submitted to the Advisory Committee on
Purchases and Contracts for an opinion shall be                                               Article 71
accompanied by a report drawn up and presented by
the competent official or by an alternate appointed                  Preliminary deposits shall be repaid, or the
by the authorizing officer.                                          guarantees given in place thereof discharged, in
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 7. 75                               Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 170/ 11
accordance with the provisions relating to the                         the original unit price was equal to or greater
conclusion of contracts, except in cases of non­                       than 100 000 units of account. Such sales may
performance or late performance as referred to in the                  also be suitably advertised in the press of the
final paragraph of Article 64 of the Financial                         Member States .
Regulation.
                                                                   Advertisements in the press shall not be necessary if
                                                                   the cost involved would outweigh the benefit to be
                                                                   gained therefrom.
                           TITLE XIII
MINIMUM VALUE FOR MOVABLE PROPERTY TO                                                     TITLE XV
            BE ENTERED IN THE INVENTORY
                                                                   METHOD       FOR DRAWING-UP AND OPERATING
         (Article 67 of the Financial Regulation )                              THE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
                                                                           (Article 74 of the Financial Regulation)
                            Article 72
                                                                                           Article 74
Entries must be made in the inventory for all
movable property :                                                         Drawing-up of the accounting system
— with an original value of not less than 30 units of              The . accounting system shall be divided into two
      account ( 100 units of account in the case of                separate parts :
      movable property of a scientific or technical
      nature (1 )), and                                            — budgetary accounts,
— of which the normal useful life exceeds one year                 — general accounts.
      (two years in the case of movable property of a
      scientific or technical nature (*)), and
                                                                                           Article 75
— which is not an item of consumer goods.
                                                                                      Budgetary accounts
                                                                   1 . The budgetary accounts shall show, for every
                                                                   subdivision of the budget :
                           TITLE XIV
                                                                   — the amounts to which entitlement is established
       ADVERTISEMENT OF SALES OF MOVABLE                               in the course of the financial year and the
                           PROPERTY                                    amounts received during that year,
           (Article 68 of the Financial Regulation )               — the commitments entered into and payments
                                                                       made in the course of the financial year.
                            Article 73                             2.    Separate accounts shall be opened so that the
                                                                   use of appropriations carried over and the collection
                                                                   of outstanding debts can be recorded separately.
The sale of movable property shall be :
                                                                   3.    The accounts may be itemized in order to
 ( a) suitably advertised locally if the original unit             provide a basis for an analysis of the results .
      price exceeds 2 000 units of account;
                                                                   4. The accounts shall be kept in books, or on
      no advertisement shall be necessary if that price            sheets, or may be stored in a computer.
      was less than 2 000 units of account ;
 ( b) advertised by a notice of sale published in the                                      Article 76
      Official Journal of the European Communities if
                                                                                       General accounts
(*) Defined in connection with the Joint Research Centre
     in the ' recueil des instructions relatives aux inventaires '
     (Doc. 13.131 /XV/ 1968-F) and the ' nomenclature des           1.   The purpose of the general accounts shall be to
     matériels — canevas général' (Doc. EUR/C/5115/65-F            enable the institution's situation in respect of assets
     and updatings).                                               and liabilities to be ascertained .
 ---pagebreak--- No L 170/ 12                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                1.7 . 75
2. The accounting system to be used for the                    7. Type 6 'expenditure accounts' shall record the
general accounts shall be drawn up on the basis of a           gross amounts of items of expenditure entered in the
decimal system of classification.                              budgetary accounts.
3 . The following types of account, at least, shall            Separate accounts shall be opened for expenditure
be kept :                                                      relating to :
Type 1 : capital account,                                      — appropriations for the current financial year,
Type 2 : fixed asset accounts,
Type 3 : stock accounts,
                                                               — appropriations carried over pursuant to Article
                                                                    6(1 ) (b) of the Financial Regulation,
Type 4 : sundry personal accounts,
Type 5 : accounts for cash in hand and at bank,                — appropriations carried over pursuant to Article
                                                                    6(1 ) (c) of the Financial Regulation.
Type 6 : expenditure accounts,
Type 7: income accounts,                                       8 . Type 7 'income accounts' shall indicate the
Type 8 ; outturn accounts.                                     gross amounts to which entitlement is established, as
                                                               entered in the budgetary accounts .
4.     Each of these types of account shall comprise
groups (with a two-digit code) which, in their turn,           Separate       accounts    shall   be   opened for    the
shall be subdivided into sub-groups (with a three­             entitlements established :
digit code), and the latter shall be divided into
accounts (with a five-digit code).                             — in the course of the current financial year,
5.     Type 4 'personal accounts' shall record all             — still outstanding from previous financial years.
operations with third parties, including their
adjustment accounts.                                           9.     Type 8 'outturn accounts' shall show the
                                                               outturn of the financial year :
Type 4 shall comprise the following principal
groups :                                                       — sums outstanding and sums received in excess,
—    advances to staff,                                        — debtor and creditor Member States,
—    accounts with the other institutions,                     — surplus for the financial year.            ,
—    sundry debtors and creditors,
—    funds to be transferred,                                   10. Each institution shall draw up an accounting
—    revenue and expenditure to be charged to                  system along the lines set out above. It shall create
     accounts,                                                 groups, subgroups and individual accounts
— memorandum accounts for the re-utilization of                depending on its particular needs .
     income,
— balancing accounts,                                                                     Article 77
— departments with separate accounts (sickness
     fund),                                                                 Operation of the accounting system
     adjustment accounts for transfers of scientific and
     technical equipment between various research               1 . The general accounts shall be kept for each
     and investment objectives .                                calendar year using the double entry method.
 6.     Type 5 'accounts for cash in hand and at                2. The accounts shall be kept in books, or on
 bank' shall indicate the transactions in securities,           sheets, or may be stored in a computer.
 transactions by the cash offices, bank and postal
 cheque transactions, and transactions carried out by           3.    The accounting system shall enable the overall
 the     assistant   accounting     officers   and , the        balance of the accounts to be drawn up, i.e., the
 administrators of advance funds .                              statement of all the institution's assets and liabilities
                                                                accounts, including the balanced accounts with, in
 Type 5 shall comprise the following principal                  each case :
groups :
—    shares and securities on deposit,                          — the account number,
—    accounts of the cash offices,                              — the heading,
—    bank accounts,                                             — total debits,
—    postal cheque accounts,
—     accounts of the assistant accounting officers,            — total credits,
 — accounts of the administrators of advance funds .            — balance.
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 7 . 75                             Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 170/ 13
4. The accounting system shall be so kept as to                                            Article 79
enable a detailed analysis of the balances of personal
accounts to be made.                                              The accounting officer, assistant accounting officers
                                                                  and administrators of advance funds shall insure
5.       The current accounts with the other institutions         themselves, through the institution, against the
shall be settled periodically.                                    financial risks inherent in their duties .
6.       The suspense accounts shall be kept under
constant review and shall be settled as soon as
possible, and at any event within period specified in                                      Article 80
Article 73 of the Financial Regulation.
                                                                  The premiums for this insurance shall be paid
7.       The purpose of the memorandum accounts for               directly to the insurer by the institution .
re-utilization shall be to make it possible to monitor
the re-utilization of the types of income specified in
Article 22 (b ) of the Financial Regulation and to
enable the statement provided for in the last                                               Article 81
 subparagraph of Article 82 ( 1 ) and (2) to be drawn up .
8.        The cash (bank and postal cheque) accounts              Without prejudice to :
shall be kept in national currency and also in the
currency in which the accounts as a whole are kept.               — Articles 86 to 89 of the Staff Regulations of the
                                                                       European Communities and conditions of
9.        The accounts of the Joint Research Centre shall              employment of other servants of the
be included in the Commission's general accounts .                     Communities,
                                                                  — Article 78 of the Financial Regulation applicable
                                                                       to the general budget of the European
                                                                       Communities,
                           TITLE XVI
                                                                   — the institution's right of recovery vis-a-vis third
         INSURANCE OF ACCOUNTING OFFICERS,                             parties,
         ASSISTANT ACCOUNTING OFFICERS AND
       ADMINISTRATORS OF ADVANCE FUNDS —                           the institution shall itself bear all risks and losses not
          SPECIAL ALLOWANCE; CATEGORIES OF                         covered by the insurers, in so far as the amounts
 OFFICIALS OR OTHER STAFF QUALIFIED TO BE
        APPOINTED ACCOUNTING OFFICERS OR
                                                                   credited to the guarantee account opened in the
        ADMINISTRATORS OF ADVANCE FUNDS                            name of the official whose liability is involved are
                                                                   not sufficient for this purpose.
            (Article 78 of the Financial Regulation)
                                                                                            Article 82
                            Article 78
 The accounting officer shall be appointed by each                 The monthly amount of the special allowance
 institution from among officials of categories A and              referred to in Article 78 of the Financial Regulation
 B who are nationals of the Member States .                        shall   be :
 Assistant accounting officers shall be appointed by               — 60 units of account for the accounting officer,
 each institution from officials of categories A and B
 who are nationals of the Member States .                          — 40 units of account for assistant accounting
                                                                        officers,
 Category C officials may be appointed assistant
 accounting officers if they are regularly called upon             — 20 units of account for administrators of advance
 to handle funds. However, these officials shall have                  funds, where the amount that they administer is
 no power to sign in their capacity as assistant                       equal to or greater than 1 000 units of account
 accounting officers for purposes of Article 56 of the                  and where the period of administration is equal
 Financial Regulation.                                                 to or greater than 30 consecutive days.
 The administrators of advance funds shall be chosen               The date on which the allocation of this .allowance
 from officials of categories A, B or C, or, should the            shall take effect shall be the date of entry into force
 need arise, from other staff having a status                      of the new Financial Regulation, namely 1 May
 equivalent to those categories.                                   1973 .
 ---pagebreak---                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                1 . 7. 75
No L 170/ 14
                        Article 83                           being that of 1971 ( 100), every time that the size of
                                                             the variation reaches :
A guarantee account in the name of each person               — 50 % in the case of the amounts specified in
entitled to the allowance as aforesaid shall be opened
by the institution with a bank in the place where the              Articles 45, 72 and 73 ,
accounting officer performs his duties. This account         — 10 °/o in the case of the amounts specified in
shall be credited each month with that allowance                   Article   82 .
and debited by the amount of the deficit for which
the person concerned is declared liable by the                The Commission shall determine the new amounts,
institution which appointed him, in so far as such            rounded off to the nearest unit of .account above or
deficit is not covered by sums recoverable from the           below, and shall communicate them to the other
insurers .                                                    institutions .
                        Article 84                                                     Article 86
When an accounting officer, assistant accounting              The provisions of this Regulation shall not be
officer or administrator of advance funds terminates          without prejudice to the operation of the special
his duties, any balance standing to his credit in the         provisions of the Financial Regulation which are
guarantee account shall be paid to him or to those             applicable to the European Social Fund (Title VIII of
lawfully claiming through him, after a decision has            the Financial Regulation), the European Agricultural
been taken by the authorities referred to in Article          Guidance and Guarantee Fund (Title IX of the
 18 of the Financial Regulation and the final                  Financial Regulation), the European Regional
 discharge referred to in Article 80 of the Financial         Development Fund (Title Xa of the Financial
 Regulation has been granted, and after the approval           Regulation (*))    and      the    Office   for Official
 of the accounting officer, save where he himself is          Publications of the European Communities (Annex I
 concerned, and that of the financial controller have         to the Financial Regulation ).
 been given.
 The requisite measures shall be taken to ensure that                                   Article 87
 a guarantee account can be debited only if two
 signatures are given, one of which must be that of            Within six months of the date of entry into force of
 the accounting officer.                                       this Regulation, the institutions shall inform the
                                                               Audit Board of the provisions that they have
 In no case may t)he signature of the person in whose          adopted in order to apply it.
 name the account stands be used for the purpose of
 debiting the account.
                                                                                         Article 88
                                                               The present measures in implementation of the
                       TITLE XVII                              Financial Regulation shall take effect on 1 July 1975 .
           GENERAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS
                                                               Done at Brussels, 30 June 1975 .
                         Article 85                                                         For the Commission
  The amounts specified in Articles 45 , 72, 73 and 82                                         The President
  shall be adjusted in accordance with variations in the
  Belgian consumer price index, the index for reference                                   Francois-Xavier ORTOLI
                                                                (!) OJ No L 73 , 21 . 3 . 1975, p. 46.