Guidelines for Political Parties on Exchequer funding under the Electoral Acts.

7. Exchequer Expenditure Statements

Section 20 (1) of the 1997 Act requires the appropriate officer of each qualifying party to furnish to the Standards Commission an annual Exchequer Expenditure Statement. In the Exchequer Expenditure Statement, the appropriate officer is required to :

• state the amount of funding received in respect of the preceding year;
• confirm that the funding was not used in connection with election or referendum expenses;
• confirm that the funding was applied to some or all of the purposes referred to at 4 above;
• provide a breakdown of expenditure relating to each of the purposes referred to at 4 above, indicating the actual matters to which the funding was applied and being specific as to the nature of the expenses incurred.

Amounts applied to the promotion of participation by women and young persons in political activity may, if appropriate, be identified and included under any or all of the headings at 5, 6, 7 or 8 of the Exchequer Expenditure Statement. Whether or not they are shown under these headings, they must be shown separately under heading 9 of the Exchequer Expenditure Statement. A sample copy of the Exchequer Expenditure Statement is at Appendix B.

If funding in respect of a particular year is not spent in that year, it must be accounted for in the Exchequer Expenditure Statement for the year in which it is actually spent.
The Exchequer Expenditure Statement must be audited by a public auditor (within the meaning of the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1893 to 1978 and the Friendly Societies Acts, 1896 to 1977). A copy of the auditor's report must be furnished to the Standards Commission with the Exchequer Expenditure Statement. The cost of the audit will be borne by the party concerned. Attached at Appendix C is a pro-forma auditor's report.

The Standards Commission has set a deadline of 31 March for furnishing to it the Exchequer Expenditure Statement and auditor's report. This is not a statutory deadline. It was chosen by the Standards Commission because it coincides with the date by which each registered political party must furnish its annual Donation Statement and Statutory Declaration to the Standards Commission. It is also an appropriate date given that copies of Exchequer Expenditure Statements and auditors' reports, together with certain other material, are required to be forwarded by the Standards Commission to the Minister for Finance not later than 30 April each year, in order that payments may continue to be made to qualified political parties - see 8 below.

The Standards Commission will also, in accordance with section 20 (3) of the 1997 Act, lay a copy of each Exchequer Expenditure Statement and auditor's report before both Houses of the Oireachtas.

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