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4.2. Accountability – the role of the Federal Court of Audit
4.2.1. Legal framework and organisation
The 
Bundesrechungshof
(BRH) or Federal Court of Audit is a fully independent body
subject only to law and the 60 or so members of the Court enjoy judicial independence.
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The BRH draws its legal authority from Article 114 Section 2 of the Basic Law. This is
underpinned by more detailed legislation: the Budgetary Principles Act (1969) and the
Federal Budget Code (1969) which further specify the tasks of the BRH, and the
Bundesrechnungshof
Act (1985) which focuses on the structure and organisation of the BRH.
The Standing Orders and Audit Rules of the BRH further reinforce the legal framework. 
The BRH is free to determine the timing and nature of audit work and there are no
restrictions on its audit activities. It should be noted that while the BRH is not required to
act at the request of the government or the parliament, in practice it will respond to
requests from the parliament. The BRH may also take into consideration petitions from
citizens or issues reported in the media when selecting audit topics (BRH, 2009).
The appointment process for the President and Vice-President is as follows: they are
proposed by the federal government, elected by the 
Bundestag
and 
Bundesrat
and then
appointed by the Federal President for a twelve-year non-renewable term. Given that its
status is at the level of a constitutional body, the BRH prepares its own budget request which
is examined by the Parliament’s Budget Committee and included in the Government’s
budget proposal without any changes.
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The BRH follows a board or collegiate model structure. As such, audit decisions are made
unanimously by panels (or colleges) of BRH Members, typically at least two Members (i.e. the
Senior Audit Director and the Audit Director) although the President or Vice- President may
join to form a three member panel for audits for particular importance. If the panels are
unable to reach a unanimous decision and in matters of special significance, the BRH may
form a “Senate” comprised of the Head of Division, the heads of the audit sections, the head
of another audit section outside of the division, and, if necessary, the Vice-President or the
President. The governing board or “large Senate” of the BRH is responsible for highest-level
decision-making involving issues that concern more than one audit division, including the
annual report and special reports. The governing board takes decisions on a majority basis.
It is comprised of the President, Vice-President, the Senior Audit Directors (heads of the nine
audit divisions) and several Audit Directors (heads of the audit units).
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The audit units generally reflect the government departments they are responsible for
auditing, although in some cases they may be organised around horizontal competencies
such as personnel expenditure or IT so that findings in these areas are evaluated by means
of uniform standards and principles (Garcia Crespo, 2005). Administrative tasks are
performed by the Presidential Division.