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AUDIT

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 898 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AUDIT and AUDITOR. An audit is the examination of the accounts kept by the See also:

financial See also:officers of a See also:state, public corporations and bodies, or private persons, and the certifying of their accuracy. In the See also:United See also:Kingdom the public accounts were audited from very See also:early times, though, until the reign of See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth, in no very systematic way. See also:Prior to 1559 this See also:duty was carried out, sometimes by auditors specially appointed, at other times by the auditors of the See also:land See also:revenue, or by the auditor of the See also:exchequer, an See also:office established as early as 1314. But in 1559 an endeavour was made to systematize the auditing of the public accounts, by the See also:appointment of two auditors of the imprests. These officers were paid by See also:fee and did their See also:work by See also:deputy, but as the results were thoroughly unsatisfactory the offices were abolished in 1785. An audit See also:board, consisting of five commissioners, was appointed in their See also:place, but in See also:order to concentrate under one authority the auditing of the accounts of the various departments, some of which had been audited separately, as the See also:naval accounts, the Exchequer and Audit See also:Act of 1866 was passed. This See also:statute, which sets forth at length the duties of the audit office, empowered the See also:sovereign to appoint a " See also:comptroller and auditor-See also:general," with the requisite See also:staff to examine and verify the accounts prepared by the different departments of the public service. In examining accounts of the See also:appropriation of the several See also:supply grants, the comptroller and auditor-general " ascertains first whether the payments which the See also:account See also:department has charged to the See also:grant are supported by vouchers or proofs of payments; and second, whether the See also:money expended has See also:bee]) applied LO the purpose or purposes for which such grant was intended to provide." The See also:treasury may also submit certain other accounts to the audit of the comptroller-general. All public moneys payable to the exchequer (q.v.) are paid to the "account of His See also:Majesty's exchequer" at the See also:Bank of See also:England, and daily returns of such payments are forwarded to the comptroller. Quarterly accounts of the income and See also:charge of the consolidated fund are prepared and transmitted to him, and in See also:case of any deficiency in the consolidated fund, he may certify to the bank to make advances. In the United States the auditing of the Federal accounts is in the charge of the treasury department, under the supervision of the comptroller of the treasury, under whom are six auditors, (I) for the treasury department, (2) for the See also:war, (3) for the interior, (4) for the See also:navy, (5) for the state, &c., (6) for the See also:post office, as well as a See also:register and assistant register, who keep all 11.

29general See also:

receipt and See also:expenditure ledgers; there are See also:official auditors in most of the states and in many cities. In practically all See also:European countries there is a department of the See also:administration, charged with the auditing of the public accounts, as the tour See also:des comptes in See also:France, the Rechnungshof des deutschen Reiches in See also:Germany, &c. All See also:local boards, large cities, corporations, and other bodies have official auditors for the purpose of examining and checking their accounts and looking after their expenditure. So far as regards the work which auditors See also:discharge in connexion with the accounts of See also:joint-stock companies, See also:building See also:societies, friendly societies, See also:industrial and provident societies, savings See also:banks, &c., the word auditor is now almost synonymous with " skilled accountant," and his duties are discussed in the See also:article See also:ACCOUNTANTS. In See also:Scotland there is an " auditor " who is an official of the See also:court of session, appointed to tax See also:costs in litigation, and who corresponds to the See also:English taxing-See also:master. In France there are legal officers, called auditors, attached to the Conseil d'Etat, whose duties consist in See also:drawing up briefs and preparing documents. On the See also:continent of See also:Europe, lawyers skilled in military See also:law are called "auditors" (see MILITARY LAW). Auditor is also the designation of certain officials of the See also:Roman See also:curia. The auditores Rotae are the See also:judges of the court of the See also:Rota (so called, according to See also:Hinschius, probably from the See also:form of the panelling in the See also:room where they originally met). These were originally ecclesiastics appointed to hear particular questions in dispute and See also:report to the See also:pope, who retained the decision in his own hands. In the See also:Speculum furls of Durandus (published in 1272 and re-edited in 1287 and 1291) the auditores palatii domini papae are cited as permanent officials appointed to instruct the pope on questions as they arose. The court of the Rota appears for the first See also:time under this name in, the See also:bull Romani Pontificis of See also:Martin V. in 1422, and the auditores by this time had See also:developed into a permanent tribunal to which the definitive decision of certain disputes, hitherto relegated to a See also:commission of cardinals or to the pope himself, was assigned.

From this time the See also:

powers of the auditores increased until the reform of the curia by See also:Sixtus V., when the creation of the congregations of cardinals for specific purposes tended gradually to withdraw from the Rota its most important functions. It still, however, ranks as the supreme court of See also:justice in the papal curia, and, as members of it, the auditores enjoy See also:special privileges. They are prelates, and, besides the rights enjoyed by these, have others conceded by successive popes, e.g. that of holding benefices in See also:plurality, of non-See also:residence, &c. When the pope says See also:mass pontifically the subdeacon is always an auditor. The auditores must be in See also:priest's or See also:deacon's orders, and have always been selected—nominally at least—after severe tests as to their moral and intellectual qualifications. They are twelve in number, and, ' by the constitution of See also:Pius IV., four of them were to be foreigners; one See also:French, one See also:Spanish, one See also:German and one Venetian; while the nomination of others was the See also:privilege of certain cities. No See also:bishop, unless in partibus (see BISHOP), may be an auditor: On the other See also:hand, from the auditores, as the intellectual elite of the curia, the episcopate, the nunciature and the cardinalate are largely recruited. The auditor camerae /uditore p, ra; delld yeverenda See also:camera apostolica) is an official formerly charged with important executive functions. In 1485, by a bull of See also:Innocent VIII., he was given extensive See also:jurisdiction over all See also:civil and criminal causes arising in the curia, or appealed to it from the papal territories. In addition he received the See also:function of watching over the See also:execution of all sentences passed by the curia. This was extended later, by Pius IV., to a similar executive function in respect of all papal bulls and briefs, wherever no special executor was named. This right was confirmed by See also:Gregory XVI. in 1834, and the auditor may still in principle issue letters monitory.

In practice, however, this function was at all times but rarely exercised, and, since 1847, has fallen to a See also:

prelate locum tenens, who also took over the auditor's jurisdiction in the papal states (Hinschius, Kathol. Kirchenrecht, i. 409, &c.). Auditores (listeners), in the early See also:Church, was another name . for catechumens (q.v.).

End of Article: AUDIT

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AUDLEY, THOMAS AUDLEY, BARON (c. 1488-1544)

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