External Auditors

External auditors are appointed by the Council to audit the Organization’s financial statements (including its Pension Fund) and perform any other audits which they consider necessary.

External Auditors are appointed from the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Member States for an intial mandate of three years, renewable for two years.

The coordination and collaboration relationship between the External Audit and the Internal Audit function are described by their respective professional standards, INTOSAI and IIA IPPF.

At CERN , the Internal Audit Service provides the necessary support to the External auditors in conducting their mandate. It usually encompasses:

• Providing technical help with CERN specific systems and tools
• Ensuring that the External Auditors'requests for information are met by the Organization
• Supplying and coordinating the logistics required by the External Auditors

The external auditors currently appointed are representatives of the Austrian Court of Audit, Der Rechnunghof.

External auditors from the Italian Court of Audit, Corte dei Conti, have been apppointed to take over from the current external auditors and will audit the accounts of the Organization, starting with the audit of the Organization 2009 accounts.

Except for the first supreme audit institution from Switzerland appointed for a total of nine years, Council has since then appointed supreme audit institutions of its member state for a total of five years.

Accounts audited	Supreme audit institution from
1954 - 1962	Switzerland
1963 - 1967	United Kingdom
1968 - 1972	Denmark
1973 - 1977	Germany
1978 - 1982	France
1983 - 1987	The Netherlands
1988 - 1992	Sweden
1993 - 1997	Norway
1998 - 2002	Spain
2003 - 2007	Austria
2008 - 2012	Italy