16. Audit Reports

16.1.

The Committee may from time to time determine:

16.1.1.	the form or forms in which audit reports are to be submitted to the Bureau;
16.1.2.	the information to be contained in audit reports and the procedures to be adopted in the preparation of same; and
16.1.3.	audit procedures to be followed when auditing circulation data for the purposes of audited reports, provided that no such determination of the Committee shall be inconsistent with these Rules.

16.2.	Each audit report submitted by publisher members to the Bureau shall be signed by the chief executive of the publisher member concerned or such other officer as may be duly authorised by the publisher member for that purpose. The publisher member shall be held responsible for the accuracy of the report.
16.3.	Audit reports shall be lodged by publisher members with the Bureau not more than thirty (30) days after the conclusion of the defined audit period to which they relate.
16.4.	An audit report (or any part thereof) will not be circulated to members or other interested parties if the Committee is of the opinion that the contents of such report cannot be verified.
16.5.	No publisher member who is in arrears with any fees or levies or other monies payable to the Bureau shall be entitled to lodge an audit report with the Bureau nor shall his or her audit report be included in the Summary of Audited Circulations nor shall it receive any other service provided to members by the Bureau.
16.6.	If any publication sustains a 15% decrease in net paid sales over a continuous period of three months the publisher member concerned must immediately inform the Executive Officer in writing. The Executive Officer shall immediately inform the members.
16.7.	If any free circulation community newspaper changes its circulation area so that the number of copies circulated is decreased by more than 15% in the case of newspapers up to 50,000 circulation and more than 10% in the case of newspapers over 50,000 circulation, then the publisher member concerned must immediately inform the Executive Officer in writing. The Executive Officer shall immediately inform the members.
16.8.	Where returns have been estimated for an audit report, and actual returns collected after the end of the audit period affect the reported return by more than 10% of notified net circulation, then the publisher member must inform the Executive Officer of the correct average net circulation figure forthwith, and not later than 90 days after the end of the audit period. The Executive Officer shall, at the end of the 90 day period, inform all members of this report.
16.9.	Publication on the ABC website of a publishers Externally Audited title is considered the ABC Certificate. Such disclosure on the website confirms that the Bureau has received a signed statement from the publishers and auditor. Publisher Statements are not required to be Externally Audited and whilst they show on the website they are NOT certified by the Bureau.