work together with international bodies, such as the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, and to provide it with a report each year. Within the scope of its mandate, the AOB must also participate in evaluation proceedings with respect of the enactment of general legislation by the Federal Government and the Laender. As the National Preventive Mechanism, the AOB has the special duty of cooperating with the scientific community, academia and educational institutions, as well as providing information to the public about its activities. As a body that manages its own budget, the AOB must manage and bear all of its personnel and material costs. Therefore, the National Council took into consideration the increased staff requirements for the additional administrative tasks. In total, the AOB was allocated 15 additional permanent positions and had a budget for the second half of 2012 of EUR 1,947,000. For Increased personnel requirements 2013, expenditures in the amount of EUR 2,960,000 have been budgeted in the 2013 Federal Finance Act for fulfilment of the new competences. The AOB is proceeding on the assumption that the current budget is quite sufficient. Commissions of the AOB The members of the AOB decided to establish six Commissions, each consisting of eight members. This corresponds to the minimum num- Six regional Commissions ber of Commissions required under the law. After hearing the Commissions, they were structured according to regional criteria (ROP of the AOB 2012, Federal Law Gazette (BGBl.) II No. 250/2012). Alone the regionally highly differentiated number of institutions and facilities to be monitored and controlled can result in unequal work loads for the Commissions. This was taken into consideration when distributing the budget available for the Commissions. Likewise, the monitoring and control activities can result in a need for cross-regional Commissions or Commissions that are structured according to objective criteria. It was agreed with the Commissions to wait until more information was available and, if needed, to revise the ROP of the AOB in 2013 39