The Federal Decree Law No. 56 of 2023 was issued by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who is the President of the United Arab Emirates.
The decree was issued in regard to the establishment of the Emirates Accounting Authority. This new body will take the place of the Audit Bureau, will report directly to the President of the State, and will have the objective of enhancing the oversight of public funds. The Emirates Accounting Authority is considered to be the highest body in the country for financial oversight, accounting, integrity, and transparency.
Below are the details of the decree:
- The decree law regulates the various aspects of the Emirates Accounting Authority’s contribution to other competent authorities in protecting public funds through oversight of financial, accounting and operational activities in entities subject to the authority’s oversight, combating financial and administrative corruption, and establishing general principles to enhance the management of corruption risks, detect it, address its causes, and hold its perpetrators accountable. In addition to promoting and consolidating the principles of integrity, transparency, accountability, and sound management practices in the federal government and the entities subject to oversight, in a way that enhances the state’s reputation and confidence in its financial and economic system.
- The Authority’s powers include auditing the unified final account (financial statements)of the Union Government and expressing an opinion thereon, auditing and examining the separate and consolidated annual financial statements in the entities subject to the Agency’s oversight, taking into account the laws and systems of establishing these entities, and evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the internal control systems over the financial and operational data and operations. And setting the supreme policy for integrity and combating financial and administrative corruption, which falls within the authority’s jurisdiction after its approval by the President of the State, in addition to verifying the compliance of the subject entities with the laws, legislation, regulations, regulations, policies, decisions, and governance rules related to the agency’s work for the purposes of auditing, reviewing the performance and risks of the subject entities, and examining the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency. Economic, financial and operational activities and provide recommendations thereon.
The decree obliges the heads of the entities subject to oversight and the competent ministers to implement the results of the oversight work carried out by the agency and its observations, requests, and recommendations regarding them. It also obliges them to provide the agency with their responses to those observations, requests, and recommendations within a period not exceeding (30) days from the date of their notification of them, which can be extended in accordance with Specific controls.
The authority’s powers include receiving, examining, and carrying out administrative investigations into complaints and reports related to attacks in any form on the funds and property of entities subject to supervision, and those related to conflicts of interest, abuse of power, or exploitation of public office for the purpose of obtaining a private interest or for others, and in cases of disclosure of data and information. Official documents of the subject entities that are discovered or reported to the agency.
The agency’s work includes implementing a wide range of preventive measures, administrative investigation controls, financial disclosures, identifying strong mechanisms to protect whistleblowers and witnesses, and initiatives to recover public funds with full identification of financial and administrative violations. This also includes deciding on actions or actions, abstaining from them, or making statements that may directly or indirectly affect the state’s financial reputation or harm its economic interests.
- The decree law grants the agency the powers necessary to enable it to exercise its powers, the most prominent of which are oversight, auditing, review and examination, and access to any documents, decisions, documents, data, information, reports, papers, manual or electronic records, or any electronic systems of the subject entities, and access to The external auditors’ working papers regarding auditing the financial statements, and granting him the authority to access the electronic systems and programs of the entities subject to assessing the degree of protection and integrity of their information, data and official records and of the entities and individuals dealing with them, in coordination and cooperation with other relevant entities.
The decree specifies the procedures for conducting an administrative investigation, whereby the agency informs the entity subject to its supervision or the competent authority concerned with the violation to impose a disciplinary penalty on the violating employee or those assigned to the public service and to recover public funds that the violator unlawfully obtained and compensate for the damages he caused, provided that The agency will be provided with action decisions within 15 days from the date of notification. The procedures also include the agency’s referral of administrative investigation papers to the competent prosecution whenever the investigation reveals the existence of a suspicion of a criminal offense, without prejudice to disciplinary responsibility. The Anti-Corruption Procedures Regulations regulate the provisions and controls for conducting an administrative investigation.
- The decree law permits the granting of a moral or material incentive reward to any person who provided essential information that led to the discovery of a violation of financial and administrative corruption. The decree specifies procedures for exempting from the prescribed penalty or recommending its reduction for any collaborator or partner in financial and administrative corruption who reports its perpetration before it is revealed, and authorizing the preservation of the administrative investigation when a settlement is reached with any person who has committed a financial or administrative violation and the settlement results in the recovery of public money. He was subject to administrative investigation, provided information of importance to the public interest, and cooperated with government agencies in this regard.
The decree specified in detail the entities subject to the agency’s oversight, their definition, responsibilities, and obligations, in addition to the responsibility of the employees of the regulated entity and those dealing with it, and the responsibility of its auditors.
