Central Auditing Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

(CAC), a central party body. The Congress of the CPSU elects the members of the CAC and determines the number of members the commission is to have. The CAC is charged with verifying that business is handled expeditiously and correctly by the central party bodies and by the treasury and enterprises of the Central Committee of the CPSU, including party schools and publishing houses (see Ustav KPSS, 1976, sec. 36). The CAC holds regular sessions. In checking and investigating the work of party enterprises, it makes use of experts in the appropriate field when necessary; in the case of a publishing house, for example, it would call on specialists in the publishing and printing industry.

The forebear of the CAC was the Auditing Commission, which was first provided for in the party Rules approved by the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP(B), held in July and August 1917. The Rules specified that the Auditing Commission was to be elected at the party congress; the commission was charged with auditing the treasury and enterprises of the Central Committee and was required to submit a report to the succeeding party congress [see Shestoi s”ezd RSDRP(b): Protokoly, 1958, p. 266]. The first members of the Auditing Commission were not elected at the Sixth Congress but were chosen later, in accordance with the instructions of the congress. The commission consisted of three members of the Moscow oblast organization and two members of the Petrograd city organization. The Eighth Congress of the RCP(B), held in 1919, heard the first report of the commission and elected its new membership, consisting of three persons. The Ninth and Tenth Congresses of the RCP(B), held in 1920 and 1921, respectively, did not receive a report from the commission and did not elect the commission’s members. Instead, the members of the Auditing Commission were chosen by the Central Committee, which charged the commission with supervising the Central Committee’s income and expenditures and required the submission of regular written reports.

The Eleventh Congress of the RCP(B), held in 1922, approved the Statute on the CAC. The statute provided for the election of a three-member commission by the party congress for a term equal in length to that of the Central Committee. The commission was required by the statute to examine the handling of business by the central party bodies and to carry out audits of the Central Committee’s Secretariat, treasury, and enterprises [see Odinnadtsatyi s”ezd RKP(b): Stenografich. otchet, 1961, pp. 565–66].

All party congresses since the Twelfth Congress of the RCP(B), held in 1923, have received a report from the CAC and have elected the commission’s members. The CAC gradually increased in size as a result of the growth in membership of the CPSU and the increase in the volume and complexity of the commission’s work. The Twenty-fifth Congress of the CPSU, held in 1976, elected a commission consisting of 85 members. The chairman of the CAC is G. F. Sizov.