Public sector

The auditing of annual and consolidated financial statements of public corporations and municipal institutions and companies of various legal forms (e.g. public law institutions, public enterprises and special-purpose associations) and federal states has been one of the core competencies of our "Public Sector" industry team for over 20 years. We tailor our audits to the individual circumstances of our clients and the sector-specific accounting issues, thus ensuring an efficient audit with the least possible interference in our clients' business processes. 

We have many years of diverse experience not only in auditing, but also in the preparation of municipal financial statements. Our range of services covers everything from conceptual groundwork to the preparation of consolidated financial statements including the compilation report.

The implementation advice on the new § 2b UStG shows us that the public sector, with its institutions and companies, is no longer only active in the sovereign sector, but already performs a wide range of economic activities. The correct classification of individual activities and the proper fulfillment of the associated declaration activities pose particular challenges. We support you with our expertise and tools, which cover a range of tasks from the preparation of tax declarations, including e-balance sheets, to complex energy tax issues and the establishment of tax compliance management systems.

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Public procurement law has been rapidly gaining in importance for years, and the statutory regulations and the case law that substantiates them are developing dynamically, especially in the waste management sector. Without specialized legal advice, the mandatory requirements can hardly be handled reliably.

We deal with a wide range of issues relating to public procurement law, particularly in the run-up to a procurement procedure, during its implementation, through to representation in review and appeal proceedings, both on the part of the contracting authority and on the part of applicants and bidders.

Our advice therefore primarily includes

• Advice and assessment of relevance under public procurement law for upcoming service relationships
• Examination of relevant exceptions
• Conception and implementation of EU-wide and national procurement procedures
• Examination and structuring of in-house constellations and inter-municipal cooperations
• Conducting review and appeal proceedings before the public procurement tribunals and the public procurement senates of the higher regional courts
• Conducting in-house workshops for your employees dealing with European and/or national public procurement law issues

In order to prevent state aid from distorting competition in the internal market and affecting trade between Member States in a way that is contrary to the common interest, state aid is prohibited in principle. This basic principle of EU state aid law also binds the public sector and, in particular, imposes extensive auditing obligations on municipalities as public authorities and, as a result, additional notification, documentation and communication obligations.

The municipality must ensure that its relationships with (associated) companies do not give them any undue advantages. It does not matter whether such advantages are achieved through direct financial payments and benefits, guarantees, loans or indirectly through other channels. If the local authority comes to the conclusion that the EU state aid criteria of Art. 107 Para. 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are fulfilled, a prohibition on implementation applies and the intended aid must be notified to the EU Commission, the so-called notification obligation - unless an exception allows the aid to be granted. In this case, however, further implementing acts are generally required in order to bring the specific measure into line with EU state aid law.

Our EU state aid law advice therefore includes

• Screening of issues relevant to EU state aid law
• Advising the public sector as a state aid provider as well as advising (associated) companies receiving aid on all questions of EU state aid law
• Development of solutions for the legal protection of EU state aid law-relevant issues
• Conducting in-house workshops for your employees dealing with EU state aid law issues

Public companies - irrespective of their legal form -, municipalities or public corporations that operate in the waste management sector as one of the complex areas of public services of general interest are subject to the provisions of municipal law, in particular the provisions of the respective municipal codes with their regulations on economic and non-economic activities.

We have many years of expertise, particularly in the areas of wastewater and waste management.

This includes advisory services in the selection of organizational models and their contractual implementation, but also in particular all individual issues in connection with ongoing business, including litigation.

Our detailed knowledge and broad experience in the sector covered by public commercial law guarantee tailor-made advice and efficient solutions.

Our services include

• Advice on the choice of legal form
• Implementation of (legal) due diligences
• Legal design of optimized corporate structures
• Conception, moderation and drafting of cooperation projects, spin-offs and remunicipalizations
• Profitability and synergy analyses
• Company valuation
• Legal structuring of privatizations and remunicipalization projects
• Coordination and implementation of the choice of organizational forms with the responsible approval authorities
• Drafting of contracts:
• Drafting of management or operator contracts, supply and disposal contracts
• Drafting company and tax statutes
• Solving municipal tax and pricing issues
• Review of fee and charge calculations
• Support in legal proceedings and antitrust disputes

Our services in the area of IT-related auditing include, in particular, auditing the compliance of accounting-related processes and functions as well as IT security as part of annual audits.

We also carry out project-related audits in accordance with IDW PS 850. The focus here is on audits of the introduction of or significant changes to accounting-relevant processes and functions in combination with project-related quality assurance.

Our range of services also includes software audits in accordance with IDW PS 880, i.e. auditing the compliance and security of software products and auditing the internal control system of external service providers (IDW PS 951).

In the area of IT consulting, we provide support and advice on the implementation of IT projects, such as issues relating to the implementation of legal requirements by your IT systems (e-invoicing regulation, GoBD, cash register security regulation, etc.), GoBD-compliant documentation or the creation of efficient migration concepts.

In the area of IT security, we advise you on the creation of sufficiently secure accounting-relevant processes, functions and data structures. We advise you on controlling access (identifying authorized users and systems as well as authorization management) and identifying unauthorized access from outside (hacker attacks). IT risk management is linked to this. The focus here is on assessing the management of risks arising from the use of IT systems and developing concepts for managing IT risks.

Our activities also include consulting in the areas of data protection and IT compliance. This includes advice on the outsourcing of data or IT services (IT operations, software development, project management, etc.) and the use of cloud systems, support with data protection agreements and concepts (EU General Data Protection Regulation) and the drafting of IT-related contracts.

Advice on the implementation of recurring tasks using robot-based process automation rounds off our portfolio.

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