means an actor that, in the context of indirect management, is entrusted with the implementation of an assistance measure or parts thereof and that concludes a contract with the Facility for that purpose;’
(21)Article 42 is replaced by the following:‘Article 42External auditing of the Facility1.A College of Auditors shall be established. The revenue and expenditure arising from the implementation of this Decision pursuant to Article 1(2), as well as the annual accounts of operations and assistance measures, shall be audited by the College of Auditors.2.The Committee, upon a proposal from the College of Auditors, shall determine the number of auditors required and agree on the procedures to select, appoint and replace, as necessary, members of the College of Auditors for a period of up to four years, renewable once, from candidates proposed by the Member States. The Committee may extend a member’s mandate by up to six months. The candidates must be members of the highest national audit body of a Member State, or recommended by that body, and offer adequate guarantees of security and independence.3.The Committee may appoint assistants to members of the College of Auditors on a request by the College of Auditors. The Committee, upon a proposal from the College of Auditors, shall agree on the procedures to select, appoint and replace, as necessary, the assistants. The assistants must offer adequate guarantees of security and independence. Upon request from the College of Auditors, the Committee may approve recourse by the College of Auditors to qualified external support for the external auditing of the Facility.4.The College of Auditors shall check during the financial year as well as ex post, through on-the-spot controls and supporting documents, that expenditure financed or prefinanced through the Facility is implemented in compliance with this Decision and the rules adopted pursuant to Article 11(6), as well as relevant Union and national law. In carrying out those controls, the College of Auditors shall evaluate compliance with the principles of sound financial management, namely the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and whether internal controls are adequate, and shall oversee the administration and management of the Facility, including by conducting performance audits.5.The members of the College of Auditors and their assistants shall continue to be paid by their audit body of origin; the Facility shall bear their mission expenses in accordance with rules to be adopted by the Committee, as well as the cost of qualified external support.6.During their term in office, the members of the College of Auditors and their assistants shall:
(a)neither request nor receive instructions other than from the Committee; within its audit mandate the College of Auditors and its members shall be completely independent and solely responsible for the conduct of their external audit;
(b)report on their task only to the Committee.
7.Each year, the College of Auditors shall elect its Chair from amongst its members or extend the current Chair’s term of office. The College of Auditors shall adopt the rules applicable to audits carried out by its members in accordance with the highest international standards. It shall approve the audit reports drawn up by its members before their transmission to the administrators and to the Committee.8.The administrators or persons appointed by either of the administrators may at any time carry out audits of the expenditure financed through the Facility. Furthermore, the Committee, on the basis of a proposal by either of the administrators or by a Member State, may at any time appoint additional external auditors on an ad hoc basis, whose tasks and conditions of service it shall determine.’;