The rules of procedure

§ 1 The work of the Federation Inspectorate

The tasks of the Federation Inspectorate of the BPP are to maintain the consistency of the expertising results of BPP expertisers, to arbitrate when there are differences of opinion which involve at least one member of the BPP, to ensure professional standards in the expertising work carried out by the members of the BPP with technical recommendations, to maintain standards in the cataloguing of varieties and errors and to review the expertising activity of a member of the BPP at the request of the Board or of the Advisory Board.

§ 2 Composition

The Federation Inspectorate consists of the:

Chairman,

Deputy Chairman,

Assessors and, if necessary

External experts.

§ 3 Election of the Federation Inspectorate

The Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Inspectorate are elected by the General Assembly of the BPP for a period of four years.

 The assessors are appointed for specific tasks of the Federation Inspectorate by the Chairman of the Federation Inspectorate or, failing this, his Deputy.

Only full members of the BPP may be Chairman, Deputy Chairman or members of the Federation Inspectorate.

External experts may be engaged by the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Inspectorate in consultation with the Board of Directors of the BPP.

§ 4 Expertising Commission

1. The Federation Inspectorate implements its decisions, so far as nothing different is specified by the rules, through the Expertising Commission.

2. The Expertising Commission consists of at least three members of the BPP: a) from the Chairman of the Federation Inspectorate and / or b) his Deputy and c) assessors who are appointed by the Chairman or, failing this, his Deputy.

3. External experts have no voting rights. Their opinions are to be given in regard to specific decisions of the Expertising Commission before the passing of a resolution.

4. The Expertising Commission shall constitute a quorum if more than half of its members, including the Chairman or his Deputy, are involved in the consultation and decision-making. Abstentions are counted in determining the quorum. The Expertising Commission makes decisions by a simple majority of the votes cast; abstentions do not count.

5. The Chairman, or failing this his Deputy, regulates the procedure at his reasonable discretion.

6. The Chairman and his Deputy can decide in the simplified procedure if an active member of the BPP does not require an Expertising Commission to be set up.

§ 5 Maintaining the consistency of expertising results

1 The Federation Inspectorate establishes with its investigations the expertising rules, the expertising standards and the philatelic terminology.

2. The Federation Inspectorate takes on an expert role at the request of an expertiser in the same expertising area, if he disagrees with the opinion of an expertiser colleague who is or was a member of the BPP, unless the other expertiser has stated in writing that he does not uphold his previous test result. The Federation Inspectorate may refuse to give an expert opinion if the result of the expertisation with which the applicant disagrees was given more than five years earlier or the other expertiser is no longer a member of the BPP. 

3. The expertiser, with whose opinion the applicant wants to disagree, is to be given an opportunity to comment during a period of one month before submission to the Federation Inspectorate.

4. The expertiser, with whose opinion the Federation Inspectorate wants to disagree, is to be given an opportunity to correct his original expertisation during a period of one month before a Federation expert opinion is given.

5. The decision of the Federation Inspectorate should take into account in its assessment the competent expertiser; his right to give a dissenting opinion shall remain unaffected. If an expertiser disagrees with the result of a decision made by the Federation Inspectorate, he is obliged to provide the item expertised with an attestation, findings or short findings and to point out the different decision of the Federation Inspectorate.

6. The Federation Inspectorate may also, after consultation with the Board of Directors or on its behalf, give an expert opinion if there are two different assessments of the same expertised item, at least one of which was made by a member of the BPP. The foregoing provisions shall apply accordingly.

§ 10 Costs

1. The work of the Federation Inspectorate is usually done free of charge. This does not include the creation of a second opinion according to §6, to the extent it remains in agreement with the respective decisive opinion agreement.

2. The Board of Directors of the BPP can, in exceptional cases, make a charge for the work of the Federation Inspectorate, taking into account the actual time required, in particular in the case of inadequate cooperation or coordination of the participating BPP expertisers.

3. The members of the Federation Inspectorate will be given reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred by them in their work. The applicant usually bears the cost of reimbursement of the expenses of the Federation Inspectorate. The management of the Federation Inspectorate can make other arrangements at its reasonable discretion.