Article 138
1. The Commission, the bodies administering revenue or expenditure on the EDF behalf and the final beneficiaries of payments from EDF resources shall afford the Court of Auditors all the facilities and give it all the information which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for the performance of its task. They shall place at the disposal of the Court of Auditors all documents concerning the award and performance of contracts and all accounts of cash or materials, all accounting records or supporting documents, and also administrative documents relating thereto, all documents relating to revenue and expenditure, all inventories, all organisation charts of departments, which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for auditing the financial outturn report on the basis of records or on the spot and, for the same purposes, all documents and data created or stored on a magnetic medium. The first subparagraph shall also apply to natural or legal persons receiving payments from EDF resources. 2. The officials whose operations are checked by the Court of Auditors shall: (a) show their records of cash in hand, any other cash, securities and materials of all kinds, and also the supporting documents in respect of their stewardship of the funds with which they are entrusted, and also any books, registers and other documents relating thereto; (b) present the correspondence or any other document required for the full implementation of the audit referred to in paragraph 1. The information supplied pursuant to the first sentence of this point may be requested only by the Court of Auditors. 3. The Court of Auditors shall be empowered to audit the documents in respect of the EDF revenue and expenditure which are held by the Commission departments responsible. 4. The task of establishing that the revenue has been received and the expenditure incurred in a lawful and proper manner and that the financial management has been sound shall extend to the utilisation, by bodies outside the Commission, of EDF resources received by way of grants. 5. Financing from EDF resources paid to beneficiaries outside the Commission shall be subject to the agreement in writing by the beneficiaries or, failing agreement on their part, by the contractors or subcontractors, to an audit by the Court of Auditors of the use made of the financing granted. 6. Use of integrated computer systems may not have the effect of reducing the access of the Court of Auditors to the supporting documents. 7. The national audit authorities of the ACP States shall be encouraged to participate in the work of the Court of Auditors.