Section 4

Where, owing to the limited amounts involved, it is materially impossible or inefficient to carry out payment operations by budgetary procedures, imprest accounts may be set up for the payment of such expenditure. The imprest administrator may provisionally validate and pay expenditure, on the basis of a detailed framework set out in the instructions from the authorising officer responsible. Those instructions shall specify the rules and conditions under which the provisional validation and payments shall be carried out and, where appropriate, the terms for signing legal commitments within the meaning of Article 97(1)(e). The creation of an imprest account and the appointment of an imprest administrator shall be the subject of a decision by the accounting officer, on a duly substantiated proposal from the authorising officer responsible. That decision shall set out the respective responsibilities and obligations of the imprest administrator and the authorising officer. Amendment of the operating terms for an imprest account shall also be the subject of a decision by the accounting officer on a duly substantiated proposal from the authorising officer responsible. In Union delegations, imprest accounts shall be set up for the payment of expenditure from both the Commission section of the budget and the European External Action Service (hereinafter ‘EEAS’) section of the budget, ensuring full traceability of expenditure. The decision setting up an imprest account and appointing an imprest administrator and the decision amending the operating terms for an imprest account shall specify in particular: the maximum amount which may be initially provided as an imprest, and its purpose; whether a bank account or post office giro account is to be opened in the name of the institution; the nature and maximum amount of each item of expenditure which may be paid by the imprest administrator to third parties or collected from them; the frequency with which supporting documents must be produced, the procedure for producing them and the arrangements for transmitting them to the authorising officer for settlement; the procedure to be followed if the imprest has to be replenished; that imprest transactions will be settled by the authorising officer by no later than the end of the following month, so that the accounting balance and the bank balance can be reconciled; the period of validity of the authorisation given to the imprest administrator by the accounting officer; the identity of the appointed imprest administrator. In proposals for decisions setting up imprest accounts the authorising officer responsible shall ensure that: priority is given to the use of budgetary procedures where there is access to the central computerised accounting system; imprest accounts are used only in substantiated cases. The maximum amount which may be paid by the imprest administrator where it is materially impossible or inefficient to carry out payment operations by budgetary procedures shall not exceed EUR 60000 for each item of expenditure. The imprest administrator may make payments to third parties on the basis and within the limits of: prior budgetary and legal commitments signed by the authorising officer responsible; the positive residual balance of the imprest account, in cash or at the bank. Payments from imprest accounts may be made by bank credit transfer, including the direct debit system referred to in Article 89 of the Financial Regulation, cheque or other means of payment, including debit cards, in accordance with the instructions laid down by the accounting officer. Payments made shall be followed by formal final validation decisions and/or payment orders signed by the authorising officer responsible. Imprest administrators shall be chosen from officials or, should the need arise and only in duly substantiated cases, from other members of staff. Imprest administrators shall be chosen on the grounds of their knowledge, skills and particular qualifications as evidenced by diplomas or by appropriate professional experience, or after an appropriate training programme. The accounting officer shall make payments endowing imprest accounts and shall monitor those accounts from the point of view of opening of bank accounts and delegation of signatures and controls on the spot and in the centralised accounts. The accounting officer shall endow the imprest accounts. Imprests shall be paid to the bank account opened for the imprest. Imprest accounts may also be endowed directly by miscellaneous local revenue such as that arising from: sales of equipment; publications; miscellaneous repayments; interest. The imprest shall be regularised, in terms of expenditure or miscellaneous or assigned revenue, in accordance with the decision setting up the imprest account referred to in Article 67 and the provisions of the Financial Regulation. The amounts in question shall be deducted by the authorising officer when he subsequently replenishes the imprest accounts concerned. In order, in particular, to avoid any exchange losses, the imprest administrator may make transfers between different bank accounts relating to the same imprest. The imprest administrator shall keep an account of the funds at his disposal, in cash and at the bank, and of payments made and amounts received, in accordance with the rules and on the instructions given by the accounting officer. Statements of that account shall be accessible at all times to the authorising officer responsible and a list of transactions shall be established at least once a month and be sent in the following month together with supporting documents by the imprest administrator to the authorising officer responsible for settlement of the imprest operations. The accounting officer shall carry out, or have carried out by a staff member in his own department or in the authorising department specially empowered for that purpose, checks, which must as a general rule be effected on the spot and without warning, to verify the existence of the funds allocated to the imprest administrators and the bookkeeping and to check that imprest transactions are settled within the time limit set. The accounting officer shall communicate the findings of those checks to the authorising officer responsible. Payments made from imprest accounts may, within the limits laid down in Article 137(3), consist simply in the payment of costs against invoices, without prior acceptance of a tender. For the payment of certain categories of expenditure, one or more imprest accounts may be set up in each local unit outside the Union in accordance with Article 70 of the Financial Regulation. A local unit shall be, for instance, a Union delegation, office or branch office in a third country. The decision setting up such an imprest account shall lay down its operating terms in accordance with Article 70 of the Financial Regulation and on the basis of the specific needs of each local unit. In exceptional circumstances and for the purposes of continuity of service, the duties of EEAS imprest administrator in the Union delegations may be performed by staff of the Commission. Under the same conditions, the staff of the EEAS may be designated as imprest administrators for the Commission in the Union delegations. In Union delegations the rules and conditions laid down in first subparagraph shall apply to the appointment of persons authorised by the accounting officer to carry out banking operations.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.