File n° 65 

The principle of the financial autonomy of the parliamentary assemblies, which is based on the more general principle of the separation of powers, was recognized for some time as a doctrine before being enshrined in the law and accepted by the Constitutional Council.

―  Article 7, paragraph 1 of ordinance no. 58-1100 of November 17, 1958 concerning the operation of the parliamentary assemblies provides that “each parliamentary assembly possesses financial autonomy”.

―  More recently, the Constitutional Council based one of its decisions on “the rule, according to which the constitutional public powers decide themselves on the funds necessary for their operation” and stated that “this rule is, in fact, inherent in the principle of their financial autonomy which guarantees the separation of powers”[1]

This autonomy is represented both in the method used to draw up the budget and in the conditions of its implementation and monitoring.

I. – the drawing-up of the budget for the coming year : freedom of choice in decisions
concerning the expenditure and resources of the parliamentary assemblies

1. – The basic draft

Article 7 of ordinance no. 58-1100 of November 1958 sets down, in its two last paragraphs, the procedure to be followed:

“The funds necessary for the operation of the parliamentary assemblies are laid out in proposals made by the Questeurs of the two assemblies and decided upon by a joint committee made up of the Questeurs of the two assemblies[2]. This joint committee is chaired by a president of a division of the Court of Auditors who is appointed by the First President of this Court. The latter also appoints two judges from his court to assist the committee. They have a consultative voice in the deliberations”.

“The proposals which are thus decided upon are included in the budgetary bill and an annex is added consisting of an explanatory report drawn up by the joint committee mentioned in the previous paragraph.”

2. – he preparation of the budget

a) Preparation at the National Assembly

During the month of March every year (y) the Questeurs of the National Assembly decide upon the main trends for the budget of the following year (y+1). They, in particular, set the overall increase rate for expenditure after having noted the value of the index point for the civil service which serves as the benchmark for salary expenditure.

Using these trends and the accounts of the previous year (y-1) as a basis, the various departments of the National Assembly draw up their draft budget.

The Financial Affairs Department analyses these draft budgets, summarizes them and draws up an arbitration report on which, if necessary, the Secretary General of the Questure will act.

The draft budget which is thus drawn up and which includes an analysis of the expenditure forecast, the amount of the allocation which will be requested in the finance bill as well as the share of the financing to be acquitted by the Assembly’s own resources, is then submitted to the Questeurs of the Assembly. It is the subject of an announcement at the Bureau of the Assembly[3].

b) The Role of the Joint Committee

In mid-June, the Questeurs send a report on their draft budget to the chairman of the joint committee. Each of the two judges who assist the chairman of the joint committee, is responsible for examining the draft budget of one of the two assemblies and for drawing up observations which the chairman will deliver during the joint committee meeting.

During this meeting, the joint committee sets itself the task of settling the amount of funds considered necessary for the operation of the two assemblies. This amount will figure in the finance bill and is an overall amount for each of the two assemblies. The new presentation of the budget since institutional law no. 2001-692 of August 1, 2001, notably includes, within the mission entitled “public powers”, an allocation for the National Assembly, an allocation for the Senate, in the widest sense (this allocation is subdivided into three actions: the Senate itself, the Luxembourg Gardens and the Luxembourg Museum), an allocation for the parliamentary television channels (divided between the channel called La Chaîne Parlementaire-Assemblée Nationale and that called Public-Sénat).

This procedure is doubly unusual:

― It gathers the financial authorities of the two assemblies in the same body and thus enables collaboration between the National Assembly and the Senate without calling into question the autonomy of one Chamber from the other. In fact, in practice, the Questeurs only comment upon questions dealing with the budget of their own assembly unless the two assemblies share problems.

― It includes members of the Court of Auditors in the process of the drawing-up of the budgetary allocations of the two assemblies. However, although the law grants the First President of the Court of Auditors the right to appoint a division president as a fully-fledged member of the committee and two other judges as assessors, their work is not submitted for the approval or even for the supervision of the Court of Auditors itself. The proposals of the Questeurs are, in fact, adopted only with the modifications which they themselves have accepted.

3. – The inclusion of the budget allocation for the assemblies in the finance law

a) The Procedure for the Passing of Funds

The chairman of the joint committee sends the proposals for the budget allocations for each of the assemblies to the Budget Minister.

The minister has no power of judgement and includes the corresponding funds in the finance bill. During the discussion of the bill in plenary sitting, tradition has it, and there have been very few exceptions, that there is no debate on the budget allocations to the assemblies.

The allocation which is thus granted represents almost the entire resources of the Assembly.

Once the budget has been passed by Parliament, the Questeurs in each assembly concerned decide upon the distribution of the funds included in the finance bill between the various expenditure accounts.

If additional funds are requested of the State during the year, they are included in a “corrected” finance law following the same procedure as that applied to the initial funds.

b) Information Given to M.P.s and to the General Public

In accordance with the provisions of article 7 of the aforementioned ordinance of 1958, an explanatory report drawn up by the joint committee, is annexed to the finance bill and is thus published. This report details the amount and nature of the expenditure forecast, as well as its variation from one year to another. It also indicates, in addition to the allocation requested from the state budget, the forecast amount of revenue generated by the National Assembly itself (through the sales of parliamentary documents, the renting out of meeting rooms etc.) and, since 2002, the transfers that the National Assembly has decided to make from its own assets. These transfers are made either to cover an unusual piece of expenditure or to finance certain investments, particularly in the case of the purchase of a building or the carrying-out of extensive renovation work.

II. – the implementation of the budget:
the rules set down by each assembly

The two assemblies manage their budget as they so desire and are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Auditors. There is no a priori monitoring of the regularity of this management carried out by civil servants in the service of the Budget Minister.

1. – The rules set down by the National Assembly

The provisions which apply to the budget of the National Assembly are set down in the Budgetary, Accountancy and Financial Rules which are decreed by the Bureau of the National Assembly.

In fact, this text repeats the main principles of budgetary management and accountancy : annuality, no off-setting of expenditure and revenue, no assignment of the revenue which ensures the implementation of overall expenditure, budgetary specification based on the nature of the expenditure, distinction between investment budget and operational budget, restricted nature of funds other than those concerning salaries and the rule of payment upon services rendered.

During the year credit transfers ensure the necessary financial flexibility; accounts which are in deficit are topped up from accounts with a surplus or, if necessary, by a transfer from the National Assembly’s financial assets. The Joint Credit Committee is not informed of modifications made to the initial budget if no appeal for additional state funding has been made.

2. – The different phases in a financial outlay at the National Assembly

These phases are, broadly speaking, the same as for other state administrations but they nonetheless have certain specificities which are linked to the principle of financial autonomy:

―  Act of undertaking (an act by which a requirement is created or recognized on the part of the National Assembly which will result in a financial outlay for it). This act is prepared by the director of the department incurring the expenditure, under the authority of the Secretary General of the Questure. It falls within the remit of the Questeurs or the lead Questeur.

―  Whatever the nature of the expenditure concerned, its settlement and payment can only occur once an order for payment has been drawn up by the department concerned in the name of one or several creditors. Documents proving the existence of the service provided must be furnished with the order of payment.

―  Act of settlement (the verification of the liability contracted by the act of undertaking and the establishing of its amount). This is also drawn up by the department concerned and is carried out by the Secretary General of the Questure.

― Order of payment (the administrative act which gives the order to pay an outlay in accordance with the results of the act of settlement). This falls within the remit of the lead Questeur.

― The payment of the outlay is made by the treasurer, who is a civil servant of the National Assembly responsible before the Questeurs for the funds which are entrusted to him.

III. – monitoring of budgetary implementation:
internal monitoring

The means of monitoring the implementation of the budget are freely set by each of the parliamentary assemblies.

In each of the two assemblies, the a posteriori monitoring of the implementation of the budget is carried out by an internal committee.

1.  –  Monitoring by the ad hoc committee in charge of checking and auditing the accounts of the National Assembly

According to article 16 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, the Ad Hoc Committee in Charge of Checking and Auditing the Accounts of the National Assembly, is made up fifteen M.P.s appointed proportionally according to the representation of each political group. The members of the Bureau of the National Assembly and thus, the Questeurs, may not be members.

Every year the committee examines the accounts of the previous full financial year.

To do this, the Financial Affairs Department draws up a draft report which is submitted to the Questeurs and then passed on by them to the members of the ad hoc committee. The latter may, of course, directly consult the financial account[4], the accounting documents, the orders and the accompanying documents.

In practice, once they have consulted the report, the members of the ad hoc committee send a questionnaire to the Questeurs, through the chairman of their committee. The answers are drawn up by the various departments involved in the expenditure and returned by the Questeurs to each of the members of the ad hoc committee when the annual hearing takes place.

Once the ad hoc committee has questioned the Questeurs, it settles the accounts and the annexed accounting of the National Assembly by a decree signed by its chairman and the members of its bureau. By the same decree, it entrusts the Questeurs with the task of appropriating the results for the financial year, gives them final discharge of their financial management or renders account to the Assembly. It also gives final discharge to the treasurer of the Assembly.

2. – The public report on the accounts

Article 16 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly makes provision for the ad hoc committee to draw up a public report at the end of each financial year.

Every year, once it has questioned the Questeurs, the ad hoc committee examines the draft report drawn up by its chairman. For several years now, the report, most of which deals with the presentation of the results of the financial year, with the balance and with the final accounts, has included a thematic annex which enables the examination of the expenditure from another perspective than the purely accountancy one (e.g. computer expenses, staff expenses, communication expenses etc.).

There is an on-going reflection on the possibility of adapting this monitoring procedure used by the National Assembly. This will be made necessary by the certification by the Court of Auditors of the general accounts of the State in accordance with the application of the institutional law concerning finance laws of August 1, 2001, which will be implemented as of the financial year 2006.