Francisco imposes external auditors to audit the accounts of the Vatican Bank

In another no more towards the total transparency of the finances of the Holy SeePope Francis today issued a new statute of the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), called "Vatican Bank", with which, among other modifications, the Mandatory external auditors for the accounts of the institution.

With a chirograph out of 32 articles, the pontiff has established new guidelines on the operation, structure and skills of the IOR, for the sake of transparency and independence of its organizational chart.

Thus, article 26 of the new law provides that "the legal revision of the accounts is carried out by an external auditor (natural person or company), appointed by the Cardinal Commission, on the proposal of the Supervisory Board, for a period of three consecutive years., renewable once. "

Develop transparency

In the previous law, which was established by St. John Paul II in 1990, it did not lay down the obligation for examiners not to belong to the structure of the IOR. A change that continues the line of Bergoglian to expand the transparency of the bank.

In addition, in the new Article 27, the external auditor has the power to examine "all books and accounting documents"something that did not appear in the previous law either.

With the change of the requirement of external proofreaders, Francisco's operating room also modifies the structure of the IOR, which included until now the proofreaders and which will now be composed only of a cardinal commission, the prelate, the supervisory board and the director. .

In this context, in search of greater control, Pope Francis has extended from five to seven the number of members of the Board of Superintendence, which, like the rest of the posts, lasts five years.