Parallel Audit on the processes for identifying reporting and following up on Irregularities by the Working Group on Structural Funds II
Report ID: 33
The 2004 Contact Committee gave the Working Group on Structural Funds a mandate to continue its reviews of Structural Funds issues and specifically; to carry out a review of the processes in place for identifying, reporting and following up on irregularities. Irregularities are defined by EU Council Regulation 2988/1995 as “any infringement of a provision of Community law resulting from an act or omission, intentional or not, by an economic operator, which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the Communities".
In order to undertake this review the Working Group developed an Audit Plan to be used by the participating Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in carrying out their respective national audits. The audit plan covered six specific Key Areas:
- Guidance
- Identification and recording of potential irregularities
- Examination and decision making on recorded irregularities
- Reporting to the Commission
- Follow up/investigation of the reported irregularities
- Financial Corrections
The Working Group, as guided by the Core Group of Germany (Chair), the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom, summarised the key findings and recommendations from those country reports, and produced the consolidated report which includes good practices. The findings are presented in the report for every Key Area.
The objective of the work was to capture the SAIs judgements in identifying examples of both good practice and weaknesses in the systems and procedures in place within Member States. This was the first parallel audit involving the full participation of some of the new EU Member States.
Source:https://www.eca.europa.eu/sites/cc/Lists/CCDocuments/1959834/1959834_EN.PDF