Absolutorium/en

VOTE OF ACCEPTANCE (Latin absolutorium – acquittal, dismissal, acknowledgment) – a form of control of the entities of the executive, performed by → constituting and control bodies. The essence of this control is the assessment of the financial economy – income and expenses. In the Polish systemic order the following can be distinguished: v.a. for the Council of Ministers, first and foremost determined by the provisions of the Constitution and v.a. for the bodies of local-government units, made on the basis of lower rank regulations (acts). Especially in the case of the Council of Ministers, the v.a. can be treated as a specific form of exercising political control over the government by the Sejm. Its specificity is manifested in cyclicality (settlement of the budget year), subsequent character (control and evaluation of budget implementation), inclusion of the factor of legalism and clearly defined control area – the parliament should not be guided by the assessment of global government activity, but only on the financial policy conducted by the Council of Ministers on the basis of a specific budget act. The audit covers the entire financial year, regardless of how many governments implemented the budget act during that time; the report on the implementation of the budget act is then submitted to the Sejm by the current government and covers the entire financial year. Together with the report of the Council of Ministers the opinion of the → Supreme Audit Office on the implementation by the government of the budget act is presented. According to the constitution of the Republic of Poland, the Sejm considers the report submitted by the government and after hearing the opinion of the SAO, it adopts a resolution to grant or to refuse to grant the Council of Ministers the v.a. The refusal to grant the v.a. does not require the government to resign (unlike in the so-called small constitution from 1992), which should be considered as an important element of the rationalization of the parliamentary system of government. In the case of local-government bodies, proceedings in the case of v.a. has several stages. First, the executive body of the local-government unit is obliged to submit to the decision-making and control body (council/sejmik) of the local-government unit the report on the implementation of the budget of the territorial unit by March 31 of the following year. The report is reviewed by the → regional audit chamber, and then the audit commission of the council/sejmik gives opinion on the implementation of the budget and submits a request to the mentioned decision-making and control body to grant (or not) the v.a. to the executive body. The council/sejmik considers the report on the budget implementation presented by the executive body and adopts a resolution on granting (or not granting) the v.a. The council/sejmik adopts the resolution by the majority vote in the presence of at least half of the composition of the body, however, the provisions of the laws on county and voivodship self-government clearly state the open nature of the vote. The resolution of the council/sejmik on not granting the v.a. (or rejection of the application for v.a.) is treated as the submission of the application to dismiss the executive body (in the municipality – taking the initiative to hold a referendum on the dismissal of the village mayor/mayor/president of the city). [ T. Słomka ]

Literature: S. Bożyk, Sejm w systemie organów państwowych RP [The Sejm in the system of state bodies of the Republic of Poland], Warszawa 2009 ■ I. Szymańska, Absolutorium jednostek samorządu terytorialnego [Vote of acceptance of local government units], „Budżet Samorządu Terytorialnego” 2000, issue 9, www.rzeszow.rio.gov.pl, 20.11.2017.