Coordinated audit of the funds earmarked for the funding of projects implemented within the Operational Programme Cross-Border Cooperation the Czech Republic and Poland

Report ID: 40

Both audits carried out by the NKU on the Czech side and by the NIK on the Polish side of the border have shown that the level of identified irregularities did not exceed the materiality threshold. The implementation of the OP CBC CZ-PL, including the management and control system performance and the realization of selected projects, was successful.

Actions taken by the audited entities established within the management and control system, limited the risk of improper expenditure of funds, as well as the possibility of failure to utilize the available ERDF funds. What indicates the effectiveness of the operations carried out within the Operational Program is a high level of achievement of the results, which was also confirmed by the social evaluation of projects´ completion.

Efficiency of the process of issuing of biometric passports and supporting information systems

Report ID: 108

A. In the Republic of Latvia the EU funds administration and control system is established at several levels, which during the audit period enabled detection of public procurement errors in the indicative amount of 1%from the total amount declared to the EC, however:
A1. There is a risk that the actions of institutions involved in management of the EU funds in clarifying of the principles and legal framework of public procurement, as well as the impact of the detected errors on procurement procedure are insufficient and ineffective, since:
1.1. The biggest part of the errors or 57% from the total number of errors detected by institutions involved in management of the EU funds, which were subject to proportional financial corrections during the audit period, in all operational programmes were pertaining to unlawful restrictions for selection of tenderers (for example setting specific requirements that favour a single businessman) or unequal treatment of tenderers in awarding of the contract (for example, unjustified preferential treatment given to one of candidates invited to negotiate), indicating that the beneficiaries are not completely aware of the procurement procedures;
1.2. In 45% of the cases the reasons of errors indicated by the beneficiaries do not correspond to the reasons indicated by the audit authority, the responsible and cooperation authorities; for example, in cases when beneficiaries have not selected any of the six reasons of errors, they have indicated to “other reason of error” and in 50% of cases they described these errors as differences in opinion with the institution which had detected the error;
A2. The procedure for data entering and classification of errors in the EU funds management information system is inaccurate — information on public procurement errors is entered without specifying the type of error, as well as the EU funds management information system does not aggregate information on procurement contracts in order to enable determining whether the contracts are subject, not fully or not subject to EU Public Procurement Directives and to apply a respective financial correction.

B. At the result of the audit three recommendations were issued to the Ministry of Finance as the managing authority aimed at:
B.1. Ensuring that detailed information is being entered and accumulated within the EU funds management information system on public procurement errors, so that institutions involved in management of the EU funds can analyse this information and perform sufficient actions to eliminate the errors;
B.2. Ensuring that institutions involved in management of the EU funds provide purposeful support to the beneficiaries in respect to procurement procedures and detailed explanation of the substance of the detected errors in order to reduce the number of public procurement errors within projects financed by the EU funds;
B.3. Reduction of the number of unclassified errors by ensuring accurate classification and evaluation of errors according to their type.

Parallel Audit of Assurance of Epizootic Safety in the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Lithuania and the Slovak Republic after Accession to the Schengen Area

Report ID: 117

Once Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia entered the Schengen Area, their eastern borders became the external border of the European Union and, simultaneously, the first stage of the transfer of animals from the east to the Community. The three states are obliged to protect their borders properly also with regard to epizootic safety, defined as the prevention of and protection against hazards caused by infectious animal diseases transmissible to humans.

The national border protection system has been adapted to EU requirements in terms of legal and operational regulations for border services, including for preventing epizootic hazards from spreading across the EU. These responsibilities result from the EU Treaty and the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement.

Since epizootic safety is an issue of high importance, in 2010 the NIK and the SAIs of Lithuania and Slovakia decided to check whether the borders of their countries were protected appropriately through a parallel audit. The audit was conducted between 1st April 2010 and 15th September 2010, and covered the period between 1st January 2007 and 31st December 2009.

The agreement to conduct such joint audit was made pursuant to the exchange of Letters of Intent among the heads of the three SAIs as well as previous bilateral agreements signed among them.

The audit topics covered included the following areas:

- whether national legislation had been adapted to EU regulations in the audited area,

 - whether the recommendations issued following the audit conducted by the Food and Veterinary Office, Directorate General of Health and Consumer Affairs (DG SANCO), European Commission had been implemented in national regulations, within the audited areas,

- whether the applicable procedures had been adapted to current epizootic risks and for the event of emergency situations, including those related to controlled, uncontrolled or illegal movement of animals from non-EU countries,

 - whether the institutions responsible for epizootic safety were able to cope with emergency on the local and national levels,

 - whether the epizootic safety system has been adapted to make information on epizootic hazard available to the public, on the national and local levels.

Source: https://www.nik.gov.pl/plik/id,2240,vp,2790.pdf

PARALLEL AUDIT OF ROAD BORDER CHECK POINTS ON THE POLISH UKRANIAN BORDER

Report ID: 149

On July 2004, the SAIs of Poland and Ukraine signed a cooperation plan for years 2004-2005 that included the course of performed audits and the advancement of a parallel audit carried out on the Polish-Ukrainian border.

On the Polish – Ukranian border (around 530 km) there are six road border check points in Dorchusk (Yagodyn on the Ukranian side), Zosin ( Ustylug), Hrebenne (Rava-Rus”ka), Korczowa (Krakovets), Medyka (Shegin) and Kroscienko (Smi¨nytsya).

The SAIs of Poland and Ukraine carried out a parallel audit of road border check points on the Polish-Ukranian border on the basis of the audit programme developed by the Polish party. The Ukranian party adjusted the scope of the audit to the legal regulations and financial and organizational conditions of Ukraine.

The main objective of the audit was to assess the preparation of road border check points for appropriate border control. The audit covered the years 2000 – 2004( 1sta quarter). The two bodies conducted the audit with regard to the activities of competent institutions of the two countries in order to prepare road border check points for appropriate customs clearance.

Source: https://rp.gov.ua/upload-files/IntCooperation/IntAudits/31-07-2005%2009-00-00/Polish_Ukrainian_border.pdf

Estimating the efficiency of the state bodies activities on the border control check points between the Russian Federation, Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland for the control of the movement of goods and vehicles

Report ID: 116

In october 2008, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the  Audit Office of Lithuania, the Committee of State Control of the Republic of Belarus and  the Supreme Chamber of Control of the Republic of Poland signed a Cooperation Agreement in order to conduct a parallel audit  on estimating the efficiency of the state bodies (services) activities on the border control check points between their respective countries in the course of the goods and vehicles movement within the period from September to October of 2008.

The Parties proceeded from the assumption that the parallel audit, performed in the frames of their national law will help carrying out the following tasks: to improve efficiency of the state authorities (services), which take charge of control over the movement of goods and vehicles on the border control check points between the Russian Federation, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Lithuania, and Republic of Poland, and to create conditions, which contribute to the optimization of cargo traffic.

Source: https://www.vkontrole.lt/en/docs/Memorandum_with_supplement_eng.pdf