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1. The accounting officer of the Commission shall be responsible for laying down the harmonised charts of accounts to be applied by Union institutions, by European offices and by the agencies and Union bodies referred to in Section 2 of Chapter 3 of this Title.

2. The accounting officers shall obtain from authorising officers all the information necessary for the production of accounts which give a fair presentation of the financial situation of Union institutions and of budget implementation. The authorising officers shall guarantee the reliability of that information.

3. Before the adoption of the accounts by the Union institution or the Union body referred to in Article 70, the accounting officer shall sign them off, thereby certifying that he or she has reasonable assurance that the accounts give a fair presentation of the financial situation of the Union institution or the Union body referred to in Article 70. For that purpose, the accounting officer shall verify that the accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting rules referred to in Article 80, and the accounting procedures referred to in Article 77(1), first subparagraph, point (d), and that all revenue and expenditure is entered in the accounts.

4. The authorising officer by delegation shall, in accordance with the rules adopted by the accounting officer, send the accounting officer any financial and management information required for the performance of the accounting officer’s duties. The accounting officer shall be informed, regularly and at least for the closure of the accounts, by the authorising officer of the relevant financial data of the fiduciary bank accounts in order to allow the use of Union funds to be reflected in the accounts of the Union. The authorising officers shall remain fully responsible for the proper use of the funds they manage, the legality and regularity of the expenditure under their control and the completeness and accuracy of the information sent to the accounting officer.

5. The authorising officer responsible shall notify the accounting officer of all developments or significant modifications of a financial management system, an inventory system or a system for the valuation of assets and liabilities, if it provides data for the accounts of the Union institution or is used to substantiate data thereof, so that the accounting officer can verify compliance with the validation criteria. At any time, the accounting officer may re-examine a financial management system already validated and may request that the authorising officer responsible establishes an action plan in order to correct, in due time, possible weaknesses. The authorising officer shall be responsible for the completeness of information sent to the accounting officer.

6. The accounting officer shall be empowered to check the information received as well as to carry out any further checks he or she deems necessary in order to sign off the accounts. The accounting officer shall, if necessary, make reservations, explaining exactly the nature and scope of such reservations.

7. A Union institution’s accounting system shall serve to organise the budgetary and financial information in such a way that figures can be entered, filed and registered.

8. The accounting system shall consist of general accounts and budget accounts. The accounts shall be kept in euro and on the basis of the calendar year.

9. The authorising officer by delegation may also keep detailed management accounts.

10. Supporting documents for the accounting system and for the preparation of the accounts referred to in Article 247 shall be kept for at least five years from the date on which the European Parliament gives discharge for the financial year to which the documents relate. However, documents relating to operations not definitively closed shall be kept until the end of the year following that in which the operations are closed. Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 shall apply to the conservation of traffic data. Each Union institution shall decide in which department the supporting documents are to be kept.