The plenary session of the Court of Auditors, held on 24 March 2011, has approved this Instruction, in which it specifies the documentation that the political formations have to send to the Court in compliance with the referred to in Article 133.1 of the Organic Law 5/1985 of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime and in the various autonomous electoral laws, as well as a brief reference to the criteria to be applied in the audit of the electoral accounts resulting from the elections to be held on 22 May 2011, by agreeing to the publication of the same in the "Official State Gazette".

On May 22, the municipal elections and the Canary Island Councils are scheduled to be held in compliance with the provisions of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) Organic Law 5/1985; elections to the Assemblies of Ceuta and Melilla, in accordance with the provisions of its Statute of Autonomy; and of elections to the Legislative Assemblies of the following Autonomous Communities: Aragon, Principado de Asturias, Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Illes Balears, Comunidad de Madrid, Region of Murcia, Navarra, La Rioja and Comunidad Valenciana.

In addition, local elections are planned, independently, to the General Boards of the Historical Territories of Alava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa and to the General Council of Aran, as provided for in the regulations. This is a special election of the institutions, as well as the election of the members of the Island Councils of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, as provided for in the Organic Law 1/2007 of 28 February, of reform of the Statute of Autonomy of the Illes Balears.

Given the complexity of the joint celebration of these processes, it has been considered appropriate to elaborate and publish in the "Official State Gazette" the present instruction in order to clarify the scope and the requirements the accounting and supporting documents to be sent to the Court of Auditors in compliance with the provisions of the electoral rules. It also includes a brief reference to the most relevant technical criteria which are deemed necessary for the knowledge of political formations, in order to facilitate compliance with the obligations laid down in the legislation. electoral process. In addition, this Instruction can be available on the Court of Auditors ' website (www.tcu.es).

The Court of Auditors ' audit program for 2011 incorporates, in compliance with the current regulations, the audit of the accounts corresponding to the electoral campaigns to be held in the this exercise and the examination of which is attributed to the Court of Auditors, having been approved by the Court's plenary session, dated 24 March 2011 and in accordance with Article 3 (g) of Law 7/1988 on the Functioning of the European Union, Technical guidelines to which the relevant audit procedures are to be subject.

In particular, as contemplated in the LOREG and in the corresponding electoral regulations of the Autonomous Communities in which elections are to be held in the respective Legislative Assembly, the Court of Auditors is responsible. audit of the income and electoral expenses of the local elections and the assemblies of Ceuta and Melilla, elections to the Parliament of Cantabria, elections to the Assembly of Extremadura, elections to the Parliament of La Rioja and elections to the Regional Assembly of Murcia.

Consequently, in order to comply with the statement on the regularity of the electoral accounts corresponding to the said elections, the Court of Auditors shall draw up a report for the local elections and The meetings of Ceuta and Melilla and four independent reports, one for each autonomous electoral process. In accordance with the relevant applicable electoral rules, these reports shall be forwarded, among other addressees, to the General Courts and to the respective Autonomous Legislative Assemblies.

With regard to the audit of the accounts relating to the rest of the elections, and in particular to the local processes, it should be noted that the elections to the General Boards of the Historical Territories and those of the The General Council of Arán will be audited by the Basque Court of Public Accounts and by the Catalan Union of Accounts, respectively. Likewise, the audit of the Island Councils of the Balearic Islands will be carried out by the Trade Union of Accounts of the Autonomous Community. As regards the autonomic processes, it is up to the respective External Control Bodies of the Autonomous Communities to audit the elections to the Legislative Assemblies of the Autonomous Communities of Aragon, Principality of Asturias, Canarias, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Illes Balears, Comunidad de Madrid, Navarra and Comunidad Valenciana.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 134.2 of the LOREG, the Court of Auditors shall deliver a statement on the regularity of the electoral accounts required to meet the objectives relating to compliance with the rules on income and electoral expenses, as well as the general rules applicable, and the representativeness of the electoral accounting rendered.

addition, the Court of Auditors will decide to propose the non-award or, where appropriate, the reduction of the electoral grant to be received by the political parties in the event that irregularities have been found in the accounts or violations of the restrictions on income and electoral expenses. Moreover, the result of the audit shall include the statement of the amount of the regular expenditure justified by each political formation, as referred to in Article 134.3 of that Law, which may not be exceeded by the a grant that could be derived from the electoral results obtained.

1. Political formations forced to render electoral accounting to the Court of Auditors and legal deadlines

In accordance with Article 133 of the LOREG and consistent with the autonomous electoral legislation, they are obliged to give the Court of Auditors the electoral accounting:

(a) Parties, federations, coalitions or groupings that have met the requirements for the collection of grants, as a result of the electoral results obtained.

(b) Parties, federations, coalitions or groupings that have applied for an advance of grants as a result of having obtained them in previous similar electoral processes.

The political formations must present the Court of Auditors, their electoral accounts between 100 and 125 days after the elections, so that the deadline for surrender will cover the period from 30 to 30 years. of August 24 September 2011.

In the event that a political formation refers in advance to the electoral accounting, the closing date of the operations shall be at least until 20 August 2011 for the purpose of verifying compliance with the the limitation provided for in Article 125.3 of the LOREG.

The provisional results of the audit activities of the electoral accounts shall be transmitted, in general, to the political formations so that they can make representations and send out the documents (b) consider relevant, in accordance with the provisions of Article 44 of the said Act on the Functioning of the Court of Auditors. The provisional results shall be accompanied by the corresponding annexes detailing each of the operations or items taken into account with deficiencies in their justification, in order to enable their identification and the formulation, in their the case, the allegations and the submission of the relevant documentation.

In particular for local elections, due to the high number of forms of training audited, and in particular for political formations with a reduced amount of declared expenditure, a breakdown of the operations will be provided. affected by the deficiencies and irregularities observed, so that they may also make appropriate representations only to those training in whose accounts deficiencies have been identified and irregularities that could affect the amount of the grant to be received.

2. Requirements of the documentation to be submitted to the Court of Auditors

2.1. Accounting documentation:

In accordance with the electoral rules applicable to each process, the political formations shall present to the Court of Auditors a detailed and documented electoral accounting of their respective income and expenditure. election.

In all cases, the accounting of income and electoral expenses must be presented separately for each of the electoral processes in which the political formation is involved, even when its audit is assigned to the same audit body or the grants are paid by the same paying agency.

If common electoral expenses are incurred, the political formation must be charged to each of the electoral processes, taking into account proportionate and reasonable criteria. The Court shall assess its suitability in order to be able to determine the amount of the regular expenses justified for each of the electoral processes, as provided for in Article 134 of the LOREG and articles concordant with the electoral rules autonomic.

On the other hand, the subsidy provided for in the electoral rules for direct and personal expenses of propaganda and electoral advertising requires a differentiated accounting of the rest of the expenses, so that they remain clearly identified the items and supporting documentation corresponding to the expenditure of this nature. In this same sense, in order to facilitate the checks, the political training must explicitly certify the total number of the expenditure by the consignment declared in the accounts presented and the number of shipments made.

When accounting is carried out in accordance with the General Accounting Plan, the accounting statements shall include at least one balance sheet and one profit and loss account. In addition, the Daily Book and the extract of the movements recorded in the accounts (general ledger) must be sent.

In the case of political formations with limited electoral participation and a reduced level of expenditure that may present difficulties in keeping accounts adapted to the General Accounting Plan, it should be submitted to the (i) a detailed list of the revenue and expenditure of the electoral campaign grouped by the concepts referred to in Article 130 of the LOREG. In addition, for each of the items you will have to indicate your date of collection or payment and whether it has been made through cash or banks, indicating in the latter case the bank account used. For these purposes, revenue and electoral expenditure models are attached to the Court of Auditors.

2.2. Supporting documentation of the revenue: The supporting documentation of the origin of all the resources applied to the electoral campaign, at least, must be included:

Identification of private contributions with the requirements referred to in Article 126 of the LOREG (name, address and ID number or passport).

Credit documentation of the origin of the funds obtained from the ordinary cash flow of the party.

Policies on credit or loan operations used for election campaign finance.

Documents supporting the perception of advances in electoral grants.

2.3. Supporting documentation of the ordinary electoral expenses: Only the justification for the accounting records exceeding EUR 1,000 shall be submitted. The supporting documentation for the minor entries shall be kept at the disposal of the Court of Auditors and shall be submitted in the case of the Court of Auditors ' request.

2.4. Supporting documentation of expenditure on electoral submissions: Where political training is entitled to receive the grant to cover this type of expenditure, documentary evidence of all the amounts of expenditure of the latter shall be provided. nature, irrespective of the amount.

2.5. Supporting documentation for the number of personal and direct submissions:

The political formations that have the right to receive the grant to cover this type of expenditure must declare in a separate document the number of submissions made in the corresponding electoral process, reflecting its detail at the provincial level.

In terms of the justification for the submissions, the documentary justification must be provided that provides evidence of their performance.

In the event that the shipments have been made through the Post Office or a private distribution company, a certificate issued by the corresponding entity of the number of shipments made, at least, at a level In each electoral process, except where in the invoice issued by the company that has made the shipments, it is expressly indicated that the activity and the shipments made to the required level are expressly indicated.

If the distribution has been carried out directly with its own resources, the person responsible for each political training shall certify, at the same level, at least, provincial, the number of shipments made. The political formation must preserve the relationship of the persons who have participated in such a distribution in case the Court considers it appropriate to carry out the relevant checks that sufficiently demonstrate the effective realization of the activity.

In the case of shipments to Spanish voters residing abroad, the total number of shipments made and the documentation that explicitly accredit the realization of this information must be reported. type of shipments.

2.6. Other documentation: In order to facilitate the audit activities, it is necessary to have a copy of the communications made to the competent Electoral Board regarding the following ends:

Appointment of the administrator responsible for electoral accounting.

Identification of open election bank accounts.

Condition, if any, of the electoral grants to the credits awarded.

In the case of a coalition, a copy of the coalition pact communicated to the competent Electoral Board must be submitted.

In addition, copies of bank statements from the accounts opened in credit institutions and accounts associated with the credits will be sent.

2.7. Presentation and custody of the documentation to be submitted: For the purposes of the presentation of the accounting and supporting documentation indicated above, the documentation submitted must contain at least the following requirements:

(a) It shall be accompanied by a referral signed by the electoral administrator, in which the accounting and supporting documentation must be duly identified, certifying the authenticity of the copy with the originals.

b) The accounting documentation submitted (balance sheet and profit and loss account, in the case of the General Accounting Plan, or revenue and expenditure ratios, in other cases) shall be duly sealed and signed. For the remainder of the submitted documentation, it must be timely identified in the said referral.

(c) The Court of Auditors shall only send copies of the supporting documentation of the electoral operations, corresponding to the responsibility of the custody of the original corresponding states, accounting as for all supporting documents, for each policy formation.

2.8. Integration of electoral accounts in the ordinary accounts of the political party: In general, the political formations will have to integrate the accounting of the economic and financial operations derived from their participation in the different electoral processes in the annual accounts. In the audit of the annual accounts, the Court shall examine such integration and issue the relevant statement in this respect.

2.9. Obligations of credit institutions and suppliers:

In compliance with Article 133 of the LOREG, financial institutions shall forward to the Court of Auditors information on the electoral appropriations granted to the political formations which have been established. presented to the elections, in order to allow the Tribunal to analyze the information received and its degree of agreement with the data reflected in the rendered accounting.

Likewise, and in accordance with the provisions of Article 133 of the LOREG, as amended by the Organic Law 2/2011 of 28 January, the companies that have invoiced electoral campaign operations by amount more than EUR 10,000 must inform the Court of Auditors.

3. Expense Limits:

Article 131.2 of the Organic Law 5/1985 of the General Electoral Regime states that, in the event of two or more elections by direct universal suffrage, political formations will not be able to carry out Additional elections in the amount of 25 per 100 of the maximum permitted for the elections to the General Cortes. On the other hand, the electoral rules specific to each electoral process provide that no political formation can carry out electoral expenses that exceed the legal limits established in the special provisions. In addition, an external advertising spending limit and an advertising spending limit are contemplated in periodic press and private radio stations.

Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of the electoral regulations and the Instructions issued by the electoral administration and adapting the criteria followed in previous audits, the following are included: legal limits to be met by political formations and their application to the different situations that can be presented in the processes to be held on May 22, 2011.

3.1. Maximum electoral expense limit:

Without prejudice to the criteria outlined below in the light of the processes in which the political formations are present, in accordance with the transitional provision of the Organic Law 2/2011 of January 28, the limits The expenses of the municipal elections and the Canary Island Cabildos will record a reduction of 15 percent on the figure updated by the Order of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Given the simultaneous convocation of local elections together with elections to the Legislative Assemblies of certain Autonomous Communities, political formations will be able to opt for a single electoral process or to participate in several electoral processes according to the different territorial areas. As a result, the following criteria will be followed for the determination of the ceiling for expenditure applicable to each of the political groups:

a) Political formations that participate in one of the electoral processes that are to be held.

The maximum electoral expense limit shall be as applicable in accordance with the specific rules for the elections to which it has been presented.

b) Political formations that participate in two processes of local nature.

In the case of those political formations that are presented in the same territorial scope to two local electoral processes called, there will be no participation of processes, as is recognized, among others, in the Agreements issued by the Electoral Administration on the occasion of similar electoral processes held in previous years (Agreement of the Central Electoral Board of April 24, 1995, Agreement of the Provincial Electoral Board of Alava of 9 June 1995). 1999 and Agreement of the Central Electoral Board of 22 March 2007), in which it is resolved that in This situation does not apply to Article 131.2 of the LOREG, so the limit of expenditure applicable to each of them according to their nature shall be considered separately.

c) Political formations that contribute to various electoral processes of local and regional nature.

For the determination of the ceiling of expenditure, Article 131.2 of the LOREG will be applied, according to the interpretation made by the Central Electoral Board due to the coincidence of similar electoral processes. held, and applied by the Court in previous audit procedures.

according to this interpretation, for the territorial areas in which there will be competition, the spending limit will be that provided for the electoral process that will be more favorable to the political formation plus 25 percent of the The limit of expenditure shall be that laid down in the specific rules of the elections in which political training is provided for in the elections to the General Cortes; for territorial areas in which there is no concurrency, the limit of expenditure participate.

The Court of Auditors will verify compliance with the specific ceiling for each of the electoral processes in which each political formation has participated, according to the detailed accounting and a differentiated approach to each of them, such as that of the joint limit for the case that the political formation is going to several electoral processes.

For the purposes of calculating the maximum expenditure ceiling, the population figures resulting from the review of the Municipal Register referred to at 1 January 2010, with effect from 31 December 2010, shall be used. by Royal Decree 1612/2010 of 7 December 2010.

On the other hand, the amount of direct and personal expenses of electoral propaganda that is not eligible will be computed for the purposes of compliance with the ceiling of expenditure.

3.2. External advertising expense limit:

Article 55.3 of the LOREG, as amended by the Organic Law 2/2011 of 28 January, establishes, in relation to certain external advertising costs, that none of the political formations that have been The municipal elections may exceed 20% of the ceiling for expenditure.

This same limitation applies in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Community of Madrid, in accordance with Article 21.4 of Law 11/1986, of 16 December, Electoral of the Community of Madrid, as amended given by Law 5/1995 of 28 March.

In the case of political formations that have participated in both the municipal elections and the elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Community of Madrid, their analysis will be carried out for each electoral process and together, this limitation of application in both processes.

3.3. Limit of advertising expenditure on periodic newspapers and private radio stations:

With regard to the expenses of advertising in the periodic press and private radio stations, the political formations that have attended the municipal elections will not be able to exceed 20% of the maximum spending limit, according to the with the obligation laid down in Article 58 of the LOREG. This limitation is also applicable to the autonomic elections, in accordance with the Additional Disposition First of the LOREG.

In the case of political formations that run for local elections and the autonomous elections, and are obliged to present the electoral accounting to the corresponding External Control Body, their analysis will be It will carry out both individually and jointly, given its implementation to the various elections.

4. Proposals of the Court of Auditors concerning the grant to be received by the political groups

According to the provisions of the electoral regulations, the State or the Autonomous Communities will subsidize the electoral expenses, in accordance with the rules laid down in their specific regulations. However, in no case shall the subsidy for each political formation exceed the number of electoral expenditure declared, justified by the Court of Auditors in the exercise of its audit function, irrespective of the the amount of the application of these rules.

On the other hand, in accordance with the provisions of Article 134.2 of the LOREG, in the event that irregularities are found in the electoral accounts presented by the political formations or violations of the The Court of Auditors may propose the non-award or, where appropriate, the reduction of the public subsidy to be granted for the political training in question. Where no proposal is made, this circumstance shall be expressly stated in the audit results.

The proposal for a non-award will, in principle, be formulated for political formations which do not comply with the obligation laid down in the electoral rules to present to the Court of Auditors a detailed accounting and documented of their respective income and electoral expenses. The proposal to reduce the subsidy to be received will be based on the improvement of the legally established limits on the private contributions of natural or legal persons; in the absence of any evidence of the origin of the the funds used in the electoral campaign; in excess of any of the limits fixed in relation to the maximum amount of electoral costs or their specific application to the expenditure of external publicity or periodic press advertising and on private radio stations, determined as set out in the paragraph concerning limits expenditure; and, in general, expenditure not authorised by the current electoral rules, in particular those arising from the recruitment of advertising spaces on private television stations (Article 60 of the LOREG, as amended by Organic Law 2/2011) on radio broadcasting stations owned by municipal authorities (Organic Law 10/1991) or on local television stations by terrestrial waves (Organic Law 14/1995).

Madrid, March 25, 2011. -President of the Court of Auditors, Manuel Núñez Pérez.

Here are several images in the original. See the official and authentic PDF document.