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1. In order to guarantee the transparency and accuracy of own accounting and financial management, the political parties and movements, including the lists of candidates which are not the direct expression thereof, but which obtained at least 2% of the votes validly expressed during the elections for the renewal of the Chamber of Deputies or that have at least one representative elected in the Chamber of Deputies, Republic's Senate or European Parliament or in a regional council or in the councils of autonomous provinces Trento and Bolzano, shall resort to an audit company registered in the Special Registry kept by the National Commission for companies and stock exchange, according to article 161 of the unique text of the provisions in the field of financial mediation provided by the Legislative Decree no. 58 of February 24th 1998 with the further amendments, or, after its establishment, in the registry provided at article 2 of the Legislative Decree no. 39 of January 27th 2010.
The accounting and financial management control may be entrusted to the same audit company by three consecutive years mandate, renewable for a maximum further term of three consecutive years. The audit company shall express, in a special report, its point of view on the financial statement of the political parties and movements' financial year according to the provisions of the effectual law in the field. In this respect, it shall verify during the financial year if the accountancy has been kept regularly and if the management events have been correctly included in the accounting evidences. It shall also verify that the financial statement of the financial year complies with the accounting records and documents, with the results of the performed examinations as well as with the regulating norms.
2. In case of participating as associates to an electoral competition by presenting a joint list of candidates, each political party and movement submitting the joint list of election symbols has the obligation to resort to an audit company provided at line 1.
3. The Commission for transparency and control of financial statements of political parties and movements was set up, named hereinafter the "Commission". The Commission is headquartered within the Chamber of Deputies, and acts, jointly with Republic's Senate, in order to assure the efficiency by means of the necessary personnel for the secretariat. The Commission consists in five members, one being appointed by the First President of the Court of Cassation, one being appointed by the President of the State Council and three being appointed by the President of the Court of Accounts. All members chosen from among the magistrates of the concerned jurisdictions must have a qualification not lower than the advisor of the Court of Cassation or equivalent. The Commission is appointed based on the appointments made according to this line, by a joint deed of the Presidents of Republic's Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, published in the Official Gazette. By means of the same deed the President of the Commission is appointed from among the members, and shall coordinate the works. The members of the Commission shall receive no compensation or indemnity for the activity provided according to this law. During the mandate, the members of the Commission shall not obtain or perform other tasks or positions. The members of the Commission shall be appointed for a mandate of four years which may be prolonged only once.
4. The Commission shall control the regularity and compliance with the law of the financial statement, according to article 8 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, as last amended by this article and to the related appendixes, as well as the observance of the provisions of this law. In this purpose, each year, until the 15th of June, the legal representatives or treasurers of political parties and movements obtaining at least 2% of the votes validly expressed during the elections for renewal of the Chamber of Deputies or that have at least one chosen representative for the concerned Chamber or Republic's Senate or the European Parliament or within a regional council or the councils of autonomous provinces Trento and Bolzano, have the obligation to submit to the Commission the financial statement and the related appendixes provided at article 8 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, as last amended by this article for each financial year included, totally or partially, in these bodies' legislature. Jointly with the documents provided at title II of this line, a report containing the point of view over the financial statement of the audit company provided at line 1 of this article as well as the minute on approving the concerned financial statements by the competent body of the political party or movement shall be submitted to the Commission. In case of participating as associates to an electoral competition by presenting a joint list of candidates, each political party or movement submitting the list of election symbols has the obligations provided at this line.
5. During the performance of its activity, the Commission shall also perform the control activity, by verifying the compliance of the expenses borne and the incomes cashed with the documentation drafted in proving them. In this purpose, until February 15th of the year following the one in which the financial statement is presented, it shall invite the interested political parties and movements to remedy, not later than March 31st, the possible accounting irregularities ascertained. No later than April 30th of the same year, the Commission shall approve a report expressing its opinion on the regularity and compliance with the law, as provided in the first title of line 4.
The report shall be submitted to the President of Republic's Senate and to the Chamber of Deputies which shall publish it on concerned Meetings' website.
6. No later than July 15th of each year, the Commission shall submit to the Presidents of Republic's Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies the lists of political parties and movements that have observed or not the obligations provided at line 4 as concerns the previous financial year.
7. The non-observance cases provided at line 6, as well as non-observing of the obligation to publish on websites the statements and related appendixes, provided at line 20, shall be contested by the commission to the political parties and movements within the term provided at line 6.
8. The Presidents of Republic's Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies shall suspend, as concerns the Funds falling under their liability, the allotment of reimbursements and contributions to which the political parties and movements that did not observe their notification obligations provided at line 6 are entitled. In case the irregularities are not remedied until October 31st of the following year, the Commission shall sanction the political party or movement with the administrative pecuniary sanction provided at line 9.
9. The Commission shall apply the administrative pecuniary sanction consisting in the decrease of the entire amount granted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2 to all political parties and movements that did not observe their obligation to present the financial statement and related appendixes or the report to the audit company or the minute on approving the financial statement issued by the internal competent body.
10. The political parties and movements that did not fulfil their obligations provided at article 8 lines from 5 to 10-bis of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, as last amended by this article, or that omitted to publish on their own websites the documents provided at line 20 of this article within the term provided at line 20 or in the situations provided at line 8, until October 31st, shall be sanctioned by the Commission by an administrative pecuniary sanction consisting in the decrease of a third of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2 of this law.
11. The political parties and movements that omitted information or stated information that do not comply with the accounting records and documents in their financial statement shall be sanctioned by the Commission by an administrative pecuniary sanction equal to the undeclared amount or to the amount that is not accurate, consisting in the decrease of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2, within the limit of one third of the amount. If one or several rubrics of the financial statements do not comply with the pattern provided at Appendix A to the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, as last amended by article 11 of this law, the Commission shall apply an administrative pecuniary sanction equal to up to 1/20 of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2.
12. The political parties and movements that omitted, fully or partially, to provide in the report on the management and in the explanatory note the information provided at Appendixes B and C of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, or that presented it improperly or inaccurately, shall be sanctioned by the commission, for each omitted information or improper information or that presents data that does not correspond to the reality, by an administrative pecuniary sanction of up to 1/20 of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2, within the limit of one third of the amount.
13. The political parties and movements that did not allot a share of at least 5% of the electoral reimbursements received for the initiatives meant to increase the active participation of women in politics, according to article 3 of the Law no. 157 of June 3rd 1999, shall be sanctioned by an administrative pecuniary sanction equal to 1/20 of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2.
14. Except for the provisions of line 9, the applied sanctions shall not exceed, overall, two thirds of the total amount allotted to them for the current year as reimbursement of electoral expenses and co-funding contributions provided at article 2.
15. During the application of the sanctions, the Commission shall consider the severity or the irregularities and shall provide the reasons.
16. In case the non-observances and irregularities provided at lines 9-13 were committed by political parties and movements that participated as associates to an electoral competition by presenting a joint list of candidates, the sanctions shall be applied only to the political party or movement that did not observe its obligations and to which irregularities were found.
17. Sanctions shall be notified to the interested political party or movement and shall be communicated to the Presidents of Republic's Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies which shall decrease, to the extent decided by the Commission, from the funds falling under their competency, the reimbursements ratios for electoral expenses and the co-funding contribution, according to article 2, to which the sanctioned political parties or movements are entitled according to this article.
18. If the non-observances and irregularities provided at lines 9-13 of this article were committed by political parties and movements that cashed in all reimbursements for electoral expenses and the co-funding contributions provided at article 2 to which they are entitled, and did not benefit from other new reimbursements and contributions, the Commission shall apply the administrative pecuniary sanctions directly to the political party or movement, within the limit of two thirds of the total amount allotted to them during the past year.
19. In order to apply the administrative pecuniary measures provided at this article, as well as for jurisdictional protection, the general provisions of Sections I and II of chapter I of the Law no. 689 of November 24th 1981, with the further amendments shall apply, except for the situation this article provides otherwise. Articles 16 and 26 of the same law no.
689 of 1981, with the further amendments, shall not be applied.
20. Until the 10th of July of each year, the financial statement of the financial year and the related appendixes, as well as the report of the audit company and the minute on approving the financial statement of the financial year shall be published in open data format on political parties and movements' websites, as well as in a separate section of the Chamber of Deputies' website, after the verification provided at line 5.
21. Political parties and movements that participated to the distribution of reimbursements for electoral expenses shall have, until their dissolution, but no later than the third financial year after the one in which the last instalment of the electoral reimbursements is cashed in, the obligation to present to the Commission the financial statement and related appendixes according to article 8 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997 as last amended by this article.
22. Political parties and movements provided at line 1 are forbidden to invest their own liquidities resulting from liquidness of public resources in financial instruments others than the securities issued by the member states of the European Union.
23. The following amendments are brought to article 8 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997 with the further amendments:
a) lines 1 and 14 shall be abrogated;
b) at line 2, after the words "financial statement" shall be introduced the following words: "of the financial year, drafted according to the pattern provided at appendix A"
c) after line 10 the following line shall be introduced:
"10-bis. In case of donations of any value, the identity of the financer shall be provided".
24. Line 2 of article 6-bis of the law no. 157 of June 3rd 1999 shall be abrogated. The resources of the pledge fund provided by the above mentioned article, at the available value following the completion of the procedures already performed at the date this law is enacted shall be paid to the State budget.
25. The provisions of lines 1-21 shall apply to financial statements of political parties and movements after the 2012 financial year. As transitory provision, the assessment of the regularity and compliance with the law of the political parties and movements regarding the 2011 and 2012 financial years shall be done by the Commission according to article 8 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997, with the effectual text, prior to the date of enactment of this law.
In this purpose, the Commission shall directly invite the political parties and movements to remedy the possible accounting irregularities or non-observances of the obligations provided by the law.
26. As transitory provision, the supplementing reports on financial statements prior to 2011 are drafted until October 31st 2012, by political parties and movements' inspectors Commission according to article 8 line 14 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997.
27. Article 1 line 8 of the Law no. 157 of June 3rd 1999 as well as article 8 lines 11, 12 and 13 of the Law no. 2 of January 2nd 1997 shall be applied exclusively as concerns financial statements for financial years previous to 2013.
28. At article 7 line 1 of the Law no. 195 of May 2nd 1974, the following title shall be added at the end:
"The interdiction provided at the previous line shall also be applied to companies having a public capital equal to or lower than 20% as well as to companies controlled by the latter, if this participation assures the public entity the control over the company".
29. Reimbursements and contributions provided by this law are destined exclusively to political, electoral and usual activity of political parties and movements. Political parties and movements are forbidden to onerously rent or purchase real estates from natural persons chosen in the European Parliament, national parliament or in regional councils of the same political parties or movements. The same interdiction is also applied as concerns real estates held by the companies they hold or to which they participate, according to the previous title.