CRC/C/GC/19 (a) Making comparisons between what was budgeted and what was actually spent at different administrative levels across different social sectors; (b) Publishing a comprehensive midterm report that covers actual expenditures made, revenues mobilized, and debt incurred half way into the budget year; (c) Publishing more frequent, for example monthly or quarterly, in-year reports. 102. States parties are obliged to establish public accountability mechanisms that allow civil society, including children, to monitor outcomes of public spending. 103. States parties should have internal control and audit processes in place to ensure that rules and procedures are followed in relation to actual expenditures related to children’s rights, and that accounting and reporting processes are adhered to. D. 1. Follow-up Year-end reports and evaluations 104. Year-end budget reports allow States to account, at the national and subnational levels, for their revenue, borrowing, international cooperation and actual expenditures in relation to the rights of the child. They provide a basis for civil society and legislatures to scrutinize the past year’s budget performance and when necessary, raise concerns about actual expenditures on children and child rights-related programmes. 105. The Committee emphasizes that States parties, in their year-end reports, should provide comprehensive information on all revenue collected and actual expenditures that affect children’s rights. States parties should release user-friendly reports to national and subnational legislatures and make year-end reports and evaluations accessible and publicly available in a timely manner. 106. Evaluations and other types of analyses of budgets undertaken by the State and independent evaluation bodies can offer valuable insight into the impact of revenue collection and actual spending on the situation of different groups of children, especially those in vulnerable situations. States parties should undertake and encourage regular evaluations and analyses of the impact of budgets on the situation of children, by: (a) Allocating sufficient financial and human resources to regularly undertake such evaluations and analyses; (b) Rigorously assessing and considering the findings of such evaluations and analyses throughout the budget process and reporting back on decisions taken in relation to them; (c) Establishing and strengthening independent evaluation bodies, such as research institutes, to conduct evaluations of the effectiveness, efficiency, equity, transparency and sustainability of actual expenditures related to the rights of the child; (d) Ensuring that civil society, including children, can make contributions to the evaluation and analyses, for example, through child rights impact assessments. 2. Audits 107. Supreme audit institutions play an essential role in the budget process by verifying whether public revenue collection and spending takes place in accordance with the enacted budget. Audits may investigate the efficiency or effectiveness of expenditures and focus on specific sectors, government structures of the State or cross-cutting issues. Dedicated audits in relation to the rights of the child can assist States in evaluating and improving public 22 GE.16-12638