New board set up for Vatican real estate arm APSA
(ANSA) – Vatican City, October 15 – The Vatican on Tuesday announced it has set up a supervisory board to oversee the so-called Extraordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).
APSA is the office of the Roman Curia that manages the Holy See’s real estate properties, and its Extraordinary Section manages funds given to the Vatican by the Italian government under the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
It also has an Ordinary Section, which administers the pope’s real estate.
The new supervisory board is to be made up of APSA advisers, Vatican sources said. Its formation follows on a report by APSA on the Holy See’s organizational and economic problems to the College of Cardinals last July. Also on Tuesday, auditors from the Promontory Financial Group, a firm that helps companies comply with regulations, have begun to carry out due diligence on both sections of APSA, the religious office said in a communique.
”The audit will allow us to further verify the financial and management situation at APSA”, the communique said. The due diligence is being carried out on the recommendation of a Pontifical Commission on the Holy See’s economic structure, which has been mandated to make APSA more efficient and more transparent.