Simplified audit; power to issue statutory instruments

(1) At micro-cooperatives (section 336(2), third sentence of the Commercial Code) whose statutes provide for no obligation of members to make additional contributions, and which have not, during the relevant audit period, accepted loans from their members under section 21b(1), every second audit under section 53(1), first sentence is limited to a simplified audit. A simplified audit comprises a review of the documents named in subsection (2), first sentence, and the ascertainment of whether there are indications for doubting an orderly asset position or the orderliness of the conduct of business. Section 57(2) and (4) does not apply.
(2) In a simplified audit, the following documents are to be submitted: 1. a copy of the statutes in their version in force, or a declaration by the management board that no alteration has occurred as against the version last submitted; 2. the annual financial statements determined in the audit period; 3. evidence of the entry of the annual financial statements in the company register during the audit period, or that the annual financial statements were transmitted for entry to the body maintaining the company register; 4. a copy of the list of members; 5. a copy of the minutes prepared during the audit period of the resolutions of the general meeting, the management board and the supervisory board, where one exists; 6. insofar as the cooperative has, during the audit period, offered its members investment assets under section 2(1), no. 1a of the Investment Assets Act of 6 December 2011 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2481), as last amended by Article 4(54) of the Act of 18 July 2016 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 1666), in its version in force from time to time, a declaration of the management board that, and in what manner, the members were provided with the information required under section 2(2), second sentence of the Investment Assets Act. The documents are to be submitted in text form within two months of a request by the auditing association. In the request, the auditing association must designate the relevant audit period.
(3) Where the required documents are not submitted, or not submitted in full, the auditing association has the right to carry out a full audit under section 53(1), first sentence. The general meeting may at any time resolve on such a full audit. The first mandatory audit of a cooperative is always a full audit.
(4) The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is authorised, in agreement with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, by statutory instrument with the consent of the Bundesrat, to determine, for the simplified audit, that, by way of derogation from subsection (2), further documents are to be submitted to the auditing association by the cooperative. A distinction may be drawn according to the cooperative's sector membership.