LAW (R) 82 24/12/1991
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LAW No. 82/December 24, 1991 (*republished*)on accountancy*ISSUED BY: PARLIAMENTPUBLISHED IN: OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF ROMANIA, Part I, No. 20, January 20, 2000.---- *) Law No 82/1991 was published in OG No. 265 of 27 December 1991 and was republished in OG No. 20 of 20 January 2000 and in OG No. 629 of 26 August 2002. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS GD - Government Decision GEO - Government Emergency Ordinance GO - Government Ordinance OG - Official GazetteChapter 1 General provisionsArticle 1
(1) The trading companies, the national societies/companies, the autonomous r�gies, the national research and development institutes, the co-operative societies and the other legal persons with profit-making activities shall have the obligation to organize and manage their own accounting system and the financial accounting, respectively, according to the present law, and the management accounting adapted to the particular aspect of the activity.(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) shall also apply to the public institutions, associations and other legal persons profit- or non-profit-making as well as to the natural persons authorized to carry out independent activities.Article 2
(1) Accountancy, as a specialized activity in measuring, assessment, knowledge, administration and control of the assets, debts and own capital, as well as of the results obtained from the activity of the legal and natural persons stipulated in article 1, has to ensure the chronological and systematic registration, the processing, publishing and preserving of the information regarding the financial position, the financial performance, and the treasury flows, both for their internal requirements and in the relations with present and potential investors, financial and commercial creditors, clients, public institutions and other users.(2) The accounting system of the public institutions shall ensure information to the loan managers with regard to the incomes and expenditure budget execution, the patrimony under administration, as well as for the drawing up of the general annual accounts of state budget execution, of the annual account of the state social insurance budget execution, of the special funds, as well as of the annual accounts of the local budget execution.Article 3
(1) The accounting shall be kept in the Romanian language and in the national currency.(2) The accounting of the operations carried out in foreign exchange shall be kept both in the national and foreign currency, in accordance with the settlements drawn up in this regard.(3) For their own information needs, the persons mentioned in article 1, excepting the public institutions, may opt for the drawing up of the financial statements in a stable currency, too.Article 4
(1) The Ministry of Public Finance shall draw up and issue norms and settlements in the field of accounting, the general accounts scheme, the specimens of financial statements, of common books and forms regarding the financial and accounting activity, the methological norms regarding their drawing up and utilization.(2) The accounting norms and settlements for the credit institutions, the insurance-reinsurance units, as well as for the units operating on the capital market shall be drawn up and issued by the National Bank of Romania, the Commission for the Supervision of the Insurance and the National Commission of Securities, with the opinion of the Ministry of Public Finance.(3) The drawing up of the settlements stipulated in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be made by consulting the specialized professional bodies.Article 5
(1) The persons mentioned in article 1 shall be obliged to carry out the double-entry accounting and to draw up annual financial statements.(2) The categories of natural and legal persons that may keep the simple-entry accounting, as well as the system of their reporting shall be established by order of the minister of public finance.Article 6
(1) Any economic and financial operation carried out shall be registered at the moment of its carrying out in a document that shall be at the basis of the entry in the accounts, acquiring, thus, the quality of supporting document.(2) The supporting documents that are at the basis of entry in the accounts shall commit the responsibility of the persons that drew them up, signed and approved them, as well as of those that registered them in the accounts, as the case may be.Article 7
(1) The registration in the accounts of the elements of assets shall be made at the purchase cost, production cost or at the correct value for other entries than those by purchase or production, as the case may be.(2) The debts and the dues shall be registered in the accounts at their nominal value.Article 8
(1) The persons mentioned in article 1 shall be obliged to carry out the general inventory of the elements of assets and liabilities held at the beginning of the activity, at least once a year during their functioning, in case of merging or cessation of the activity, as well as in other cases provided for by the law.(2) The Ministry of Public Finance may approve exceptions from the annual inventory rule for certain goods of special character found in the administration of public institutions, on the proposal of the main loan managers.(3) The result of the inventory shall be registered in the accounts in accordance with the accounting settlements drawn up in this regard by the Ministry of Public Finance.Article 9
(1) The evaluation of the elements held on the occasion of the inventory and their presentation in the annual financial statements shall be made according to the accounting norms and settlements.(2) The re-evaluation of the fixed assets shall be made, with the exceptions stipulated by the legal settlements, at their correct value. The correct value shall be determined on the basis of certain evaluations carried out, as a rule, by authorized evaluators.(3) The plus or minus resulting form re-evalution shall be acknowledged in the accounts according to the accounting settlements drawn up in this regard.Article 10
(1) The official documents of presentation of the economic and financial position of the persons mentioned in article 1 shall be the annual financial statements that shall have to offer a true image of the financial position, of the financial performance, of the treasury flows and of all the other information referring to the performed activity.(2) For the public institutions, the official presentation document of the situation of the patrimony found in the administration of the State and of the territorial-administrative units and of the income and expenditure budget execution shall be the quarterly and annual financial statement.(3) The trading companies with holdings in other trading companies, hereinafter called group trading companies, shall aslo draw up and present consolidated annual financial statements, in accordance with the specific settlements drawn up for this purpose by the Ministry of Public Finance.Chapter 2 Organization and management of the accounting systemArticle 11
(1) The responsibility for the organization and management of accounting for the persons mentioned in article 1 shall revert to the administrator, the loan manager or to another person that has the obligation of administering the respective unit.(2) The persons mentioned in article 1 shall organize and manage the accounting system, as a rule, in separate departments managed by the economic manager, the chief accountant or by another person authorized to carry out that position. These persons must have higher economic education and shall be responsible together with the subordinated personnel for the organization and management of the accounting system under the terms of the law.(3) The accounting system may be organized and managed on the basis of contracts of service provision and by authorized legal persons or by natural persons having the capacity of chartered accountant, authorized accountant, respectively, who shall be responsible, according to law.(4) For the legal persons whose accounting system is not organized in separate departments and who do not have employed qualified personnel, according to law, or contracts for service provision in the field of accounting, concluded with authorized natural or legal persons, the Ministry of Public Finance shall establish, subject to the development of inflation and of professional development, value limits regarding the level of business turnover from which there is the obligation to conclude contracts for the drawing up of annual financial statements, only by authorized, qualified natural or legal persons.(5) The public institutions whose accounting is not organized in separate departments or do not have employed personnel with individual labour contract, according to law, may conclude contracts of carrying out services, for the management of the accounting system and the drawing up of quarterly and annual financial statements, with trading companies of accounting expertise or with authorized natural persons, according to law. The conclusion of the contracts shall be made by observing the settlements regarding public acquisitions of goods and services. The payment for the respective services shall be made from public funds with that destination.Article 12
The holding, with any title, of physical goods, securities, cash and other rights and obligations, as well as the carrying out of economic operations, without being registered in accounting records are prohibited.Article 13
(1) The accounting of fixed assets shall be kept on categories and per each object of record.(2) The accounting of the stocks shall be kept quantity and value wise or only value wise, under the terms established by the legal settlements.Article 14
The value of the issued shares or of other titles, as well as the payments made on account of the subscribed capital shall be reflected separately in the books of account.Article 15
The accounting of the clients and suppliers, of the other debts and obligations shall be kept per categories, as well as per every natural or legal person.Article 16
(1) The accounting for the expenditures shall be kept per kind of expenditure, depending on their nature or destination, as the case may be.(2) The accounting of the income shall be kept per types of income, depending on their nature or source, as the case may be.(3) The accounting of the budgetary income, of the special funds and of the extrabudgetary income shall be kept per the subdivisions of the budgetary classification.Article 17
(1) The accounting of the public institutions financed from budgetary credits, special funds and extrabudgetary income shall ensure the registration of the pay desk and of the actual expenditure, on the subdivisions of the budgetary classification, according to the approved budget.(2) For the financing of the expenditures within the limits of the provisions from the approved budgets, the public institutions are obliged to organize and manage the record of budgetary commitments in accordance with the methodological norms drawn up by the Ministry of Public Finance for this purpose.Article 18
(1) In accounting, the profit and the loss shall be established monthly, cumulated from the beginning of the year.(2) The final result of the accounting period shall be established on its closing.(3) The distribution of the profit shall be registered in accounting pursuant to the destinations stipulated by the law.(4) The accounting loss shall be covered from the profit in the accounting period and the one carried over, from reserve, social capital and from other own financial resources, according to the decision of the general assembly of the shareholders or of the associates and in accordance with the methodology issued by the Ministry of Public Finance.(5) With public institutions, the result of the budgetary execution shall be established annually by closing the actual expenditure accounts and the accounts of the sources from which they have been made.Chapter 3 The books of accountArticle 19
The compulsory books of account shall be: the day book, the stock book and the nominal ledger.Article 20
The books of account shall be used in strict conformity with their destination and shall be presented in such order and filled in as to allow, at any moment, the identification and control of the accounting operations carried out.Article 21
To verify the correct entry of the operations carried out in the accounts, a trial balance shall be drawn up monthly.Article 22
The persons mentioned in article 1 that use computerized information systems shall have the obligation to ensure the observance of the accounting norms and the control of the data entered into the accounts as well as their technical retrieval.Article 23
The entering into the accounts of the operations caused by the merging, split or cessation, according to law, of the activities of the persons mentioned in article 1 shall be made on the basis of the proper documents drawn up in such cases.Article 24
The day book, the stock book and the nominal ledger as well as the supporting documents that are at the basis of the entries in the accounts shall be kept in the archive of the persons mentioned in article 1 for 10 years, starting from the date of the accounting period's closing, during which they had been performed, except for the payrolls, which shall be kept for 50 years.Article 25
In case of loss, purloining or destruction of certain accounting documents measures shall be taken to reconstitute them within maximum 30 days from the finding, according to the settlements issued in this regard.Chapter 4 Annual financial statementsArticle 26
(1) The persons mentioned in article 1 shall have the obligation to draw up annual financial statements, including the case of merging, split or cessation of their activity, under the terms of the law.(2) For the autonomous r�gies, trading companies and national societies/companies in which State holds at least 20% of the social capital, as well as for the other legal persons, the Ministry of Public Finance may establish the drawing up and submiting of the financial statements also in other periods than annually, within the accounting period.(3) For the legal persons that apply the accounting regulations harmonized with the directives of the European Economic Community and with the International Accounting Standars, approved by order of the minister of public finance, the annual financial statements shall consist of balance sheet, profit and loss account, the standing of the own capital modification, the treasury flows statement, accounting policies and explanatory notes.(4) The legal persons that do not meet the criteria established for implementing the harmonized settlements stipulated in paragraph (3) shall draw up simplified annual financial statements, harmonized with the European directives, which consist of balance sheet, profit and loss account, accounting policies and explanatory notes.(5) The annual financial statements, for all the other persons mentioned in article 1, except for those mentioned in paragraphs (3) and (4), shall consist of balance sheet and profit and loss account.(6) The trading companies included by special settlements in the category of microenterprises shall apply specific accounting rules, approved by order of the minister of public finance. The annual financial statements for microenterprises shall consist of balance sheet and profit and loss account.(7) The annual financial statements shall be accompanied by the report of the administrators.(8) The public institutions shall draw up quarterly and annual financial statements, which consist of balance sheet, budgetary execution account and schedules.(9) The accounting period shall start on 1 January and shall close on 31 December, except for the first year of activity, when it starts on the day of establishing and matriculation respectively, according to law, of the persons mentioned in article 1.(10) The Government, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Public Finance, may approve for the accounting period to begin and close also at other dates than those stipulated in paragraph (9).(11) The drawing up of the annual financial situations shall have to be compulsorily preceded by the general inventory of the elements of assets and liabilities and of the other goods and values found in the administration and management, according to the norms issued by the Ministry of Public Finance in this regard.(12) The possible errors found in the accounts, after the approval and submitting of the annual financial statements, shall be corrected the year when they are found, according to the accounting settlements given in enforcing the law.Article 27
(1) The annual financial statements of the legal persons mentioned in article 26 (3) shall be submitted to financial auditing, which shall be carried out by financial auditors, authorized natural or legal persons, according to law.(2) The financial statements drawn up on the occasion of the merging, split or cessation of the activity of the persons mentioned in article 26 (3) shall also be submitted to financial audit.(3) The legal persons mentioned in article 26 (3) shall have the obligation of auditing the annual financial statements for the period preceding the implementing of the harmonized settlements, under the terms established by the Ministry of Public Finance and the institutions stipulated in article 4 (2), as the case may be.(4) The legal persons mentioned in article 26 (4), (5) and (6) shall not have legal obligations regarding the auditing of the annual financial statements.Article 28
(1) The annual financial statements, after approval, shall be published under the terms stipulated by the legal settlements.(2) The annual financial statements shall be kept for 50 years.(3) In case of cessation of the activity of the persons mentioned in article 1, the annual financial statements, as well as the books and the other documents referred to in article 24 shall be handed over to the state archives, in accordance with the legal provisions in the matter.Article 29
(1) To ensure the information meant for the State's institutional system, a copy of the annual financial statements shall be submitted to the general directorate of the county public finance, and of Bucharest Municipality, respectively, as follows:a) the persons stipulated in article 26 (3), within 120 days from the ending of the accounting period;b) the persons stipulated in article 26 (4) within 90 deys from the ending of the accounting period;c) the persons stipulated in article 26 (5) and (6), within 60 days from the ending of the accounting period;d) the persons that, from the setting up, have not carried out any activity shall submit a statement in this regard, within 60 days from the ending of the accounting period.(2) The public institutions and the other legal persons, whose managers have the capacity of loan managers, shall submit a copy of the quarterly and annual financial statements to the hierarchically superior body, at the terms established by it.(3) The ministries, the other bodies of the central public administration, the public authorities and the territorial-administrative units, whose managers have the capacity of loan managers, shall submit to the Ministry of Public Finance a copy of the quarterly and annual financial statement, in accordance with the norms and at the terms established by it.Chapter 5 State treasury and public institutions accountingArticle 30
(1) The accounting of the state treasury shall be organized and function on the principle of desk execution and shall ensure the registration of the cashing and payment operations in income and expenditure accounts opened per budgets, loan managers and subdivisions of the budgetary classification established by the Ministry of Public Finance.(2) In the accounting of the state treasury, on the account of loan managers, separate accounts shall be opened and distributed also for the expenditure made from the state budget, the state social insurance budget and the local budgets, as well as accounts of disposable funds from which payments may be undertaken and made.(3) The state treasury accounting shall ensure information with regard to the carrying on of the budgetary execution under conditions of financial stability, yearly approved by the law for each budget, as well as within the limits of the disposable funds in the accounts.(4) The state treasury accounting shall reflect, in separate accounts, the internal and external state loans received for the financing of the budgetary deficits, as well as for other activities stipulated by law, the financial investments made in the general current account of the state treasury, as well as the deposits drawn from the financial institutions and from natural persons.(5) The state treasury accounting shall be organized within the Ministry of Public Finance and within its subordinated units and shall include the operations regarding the pay desk execution of the state budget, the state social insurance budget, the local budgets; the formation and utilization of the extra-budgetary income and of the special funds; the administration of the internal and external public debt, as well as other financial operations carried out on the account of the central and local public administration bodies.(6) The organizing and management of the state treasury accounting shall be carried out in accordance with the norms issued by the Ministry of Public Finance.(7) The ministries and the other bodies of the central public administration, the public authorities, as well as the public institutions having legal personality in their subordination, whose managers have the capacity of loan managers, shall organize and manage the accounting of the cashed income and of the expenditure effected, of the extra-budgetary income and of the special funds, according to the approved budget.Article 31
(1) The accounting of the local budgets execution shall be organized and shall be managed at the level of the territorial administrative units, according to the methodological norms issued by the Ministry of Public Finance and shall ensure the registration of the operations regarding: the noted rights, the cashed income, the expenditure made in the execution of the local budgets, as well as the obligations of legal terms of payment until the date of 31 December; the record of the subsidies received from the state budget and from the other budgets, as well as of the other amounts distributed from the state budget, according to law; the administration of the local internal and external public debt; the establishing of the result of the local budgets execution by closing the income and expenditure accounts.(2) The territorial-administrative units, the public institutions and services of local subordination, that have legal personality and whose managers have the capacity of loan managers, shall organize and manage the accounting of cashed income, of expenditure made and of extra-budgetary income, according to the approved budget.Article 32
(1) The accounting of the state social insurance budget execution shall be organized and managed within the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity and the subordinated units, in accordance with the norms issued by the Ministry of Public Finance and shall ensure the registration of the operations regarding: the noted rights, the cashed income, the expenditure made in the execution of the state social insurance budget, as well as the obligations with legal terms of payment until 31 December; the record of the received subsidies from the state budget; the establishing of the result of the state social insurance budget execution by closing the income and expenditure accounts.(2) The public institutions with legal personality, financed from the state social insurance budget whose managers have the capacity of loan managers shall organize and manage the accounting of the cashed income and of the expenditure made, as well as of the extra-budgetary income, according to the approved budget.Article 33
(1) The Ministry of Public Finance shall annually draw up the balance sheet of the public institutions.(2) The main object of the public institutions balance sheet shall be the state patrimony and that of the territorial administrative units, including the public domain and the private one, with soil, natural riches, deposits and other goods of economic potential, evaluated in money expression, following the methodology established by each ministry, central or local public administration authority, as the case may be.(3) The record in physical or value units, as the case may be, of the landed reserve, forestry reserve, reserves of useful mineral substances and of the other natural resources of the soil and subsoil shall be carried out by the units administering, exploiting and using the respective goods.(4) Upon the end of the accounting period, in the state treasury accounting the closing of the budgetary execution shall proceed, in accordance with the methodological norms issued by the Ministry of Public Finance, as follows:a) the closing of the state budget execution shall be carried out by the territorial units of the state treasury;b) the closing of the state social insurance budget execution shall be carried out by the units of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity;c) the closing of the local budgets execution shall be carried out by the loan managers of the local budgets;(5) The Ministry of Public Finance shall draw up quarterly and annually the general balance sheet of the state treasury, in the structure established by it, which shall be approved under the terms of the law.Article 34
The annual balance sheet of the public institutions, in the structure established by the Ministry of Public Finance, shall be submitted to the Government together with the annual general account of execution of the state budget.Chapter 6 Contravention and offencesArticle 35
Contravention to the provisions of the present law are the following deeds, if not committed under such conditions as to be considered offences:1. holding, with any title, of physical goods, securities, cash and other rights and obligations, as well as the carrying out of economic operations, without being entered in the accounts;2. non-observance of the settlements issued by the Ministry of Public Finance with regard to:a) the utilization and keeping of the books of account;b) the carrying out and utilization of supporting and accounting documents, for all the operations carried out, their entering in the accounts during the period they refer to, their keeping and recording, as well as the reconstitution of the lost, purloined or destroyed documents;c) the carrying out of inventory;d) the carrying out and auditing of annual financial statements;e) the carrying out and submitting of periodical financial statements established by the Ministry of Public Finance;f) the non-submitting of the declaration according to which the persons mentioned in article 1 did not carry out any activity;3. presentation of financial statements containing wrong or uncorrelated data, including those with regard to the identification of the reporting person.Article 36
(1) The contravention stipulated in article 35 point 1 shall be punished with fine from 10 000 000 lei to 100 000 000 lei, those stipulated in point 2 c) and d) shall be punished with fine from 4 000 000 lei to 50 000 000 lei, those stipulated in point 2 a) and b) with fine from 3 000 000 lei to 40 000 000 lei, that stipulated in point 2 e) with fine from 5 000 000 lei to 15 000 000 lei, that stipulated in point 3 with fine from 2 000 000 lei to 10 000 000 lei, and that stipulated in point 2 f) with fine from 1 000 000 lei to 2 000 000 lei.(2) The Government, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Public Finance, may modify the level of the fines stipulated in paragraph (1) subject to the inflation rate.(3) The finding of the contravention and the applying of the sanctions shall be made by the persons with attributions of financial control and by other persons especially authorized by the Ministry of Public Finance.(4) The guilty persons shall pay the contravention fines stipulated in paragraph (1).(5) To the contravention stipulated in article 35 the provisions of Government Ordinance No. 2/2001 on the legal regime of contraventions shall be applicable.*)------ *) GO No. 2/2001 was approved and modified by Law No. 180/2002, published in OG No. 268 of 22 April 2002.Article 37
The carrying out on purpose of wrong entries, as well as the omission on purpose of the entries in the accounts, having as a result the misrepresentation of the income, expenditure, financial results, as well as of the assets and liabilities elements that are reflected in the balance sheet, shall constitute the crime of intellectual false and shall be punished according to law.Chapter 7 Transitory and final provisionsArticle 38
(1) The Ministry of Public Finance shall draw up the norms and simplified accounting settlements, harmonized with the European directives, within 6 months from the coming into force of the present law.*)(2) The Ministry of Public Finance and the institutions stipulated in article 4 (2) in the present law shall draw up and permanently update the accounting settlements applicable to the persons mentioned in article 1.------ *) See Order of the minister of public finance No. 306/2002 for the approval of the Simplified Accounting Settlements, harmonized with the European directives, published in OG No. 279 and No. 279 A of 25 April 2002, settlements that shall apply starting from 1 January 2003.Article 39
The Ministry of Public Finance shall exercise control on the way in which the provisions of the present law are applied.Article 40
The present law shall come into force on 1 January 1992.*)------ *) See also the dates of coming into force of the modifying statutory instruments.Article 41
The provisions of the present law shall also apply to the sub-units without legal personality, with their head office abroad, that belong to the persons mentioned in article 1, with their head office or domicile in Romania, as well as to the sub-units with their head office in Romania, belonging to legal or natural persons with their head office or domicile abroad.Article 42
(1) To ensure the organization framework of consultation and analysis in the process of drawing up of the norms and settlements in the field of accounting, the Accounting Consultative College functioning by the Ministry of Public Finance shall be reorganized.(2) The mode of organization, the attributions and the sources of financing the expenditure shall be established in the Regulations of organization and functioning of the Accounting Consultative College, to be approved by Government Decision.Article 43
On the date of the present law coming into force, there shall be abrogated:– Decree No. 375/1956 on the reconstitution of deeds, documents and records with financial contents lost, purloined or destroyed, published in the Official Bulletin No. 22 of 4 August 1956;– Decision No. 1885 of 28 December 1970 on the accounting organization and management the attributions and liabilities of the financial-accounting department manager, published in the Official Bulletin No. 156 of 29 December 1970;– Decision No. 1533/1973 on the special r�gime forms, published in the Official Bulletin No. 189 of 2 December 1973;– Decision No. 1116/1975 on the improvement of the analysis on the basis of balance sheet, the increase in the efficiency and quality of the information with regard to the economic and financial results of the state socialist units, published in the Official Bulletin No. 127 of 5 December 1975;– Government Decision No. 252/1996 on the regime of foreign exchange rate differences related to the registered capital in foreign exchange and other operations applicable starting with the accounting balance sheet with submitting term until 15 April 1996, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No. 75 of 11 April 1996, with the subsequent modifications;– Government Decision No. 483/1996 on the service provision in the field of accounting, the verification and certification of the accounting balance sheet on the basis of the Law No. 82/1991 on accountancy, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No. 137 of 2 July 1996, with the subsequent modifications;– Government Decision No. 22/1998 on certain measures for the reflecting in the accounting system of the economic operators of certain economic and financial operations, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No. 34 of 29 January 1998;– any other provisions contrary to the provisions of the present law*).----- *) Indents 5-7 of article 43 have been introduced by GO No. 61/2001 for the modification and completion of Law on accountancy No. 82/1991, approved with modifications and completions by Law No. 310/2002. ----
