Costs of control
Report ID: 166
Background
In 2000, the Contact Committee of the heads of the SAIs of the EU Member States and the ECA (Contact Committee) set up a Working Group to carry out an exploratory survey on EU Structural Funds. A questionnaire was sent to the SAIs to gain an understanding of how these funds were controlled and managed by the various Member States and to identify possible risk areas. The Working Group reported its findings from this work to the Contact Committee in November 2002.
The Contact Committee subsequently approved three parallel audits. The first of these examined the application of the regulations to ensure that all Member States implement independent checks on 5 per cent of expenditure and had established appropriate audit trails to support transactions. The final report on the review was presented to the December 2004 Contact Committee.
The second parallel audit involved a review of the processes in place for identifying, reporting and following up on Irregularities. The final report on that review was presented to the December 2006 Contact Committee.
As third parallel audit the Working Group carried out a review focused on “Performance (output/effectiveness) of the Structural Funds programmes in the areas of employment and/or environment”. The final report on that review was presented to Contact Committee in December 2008.