Analysis (of types) of errors in EU and National public procurement within the Structural Funds programmes

Report ID: 107

In 2013, the Contact Committee of the heads of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the Member States of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors mandated the Working Group on Structural Funds to continue its review of issues relating to Structural Funds, more specifically, to carry out a parallel audit on the ‘Analysis (of types) of errors in EU and national public procurement within the structural funds programmes’.

The Working Group consisted of nine SAIs, while a further five SAIs and the European Court of Auditors acted as observers. The parallel audit was carried out in order to understand the reasons why beneficiaries fail to comply with public procurement rules. The comparison of the national results was intended to reveal differences or similar causes in the Member States. Most SAIs based their audit on errors already detected by their national management and control system.

Although this parallel audit was not designed to provide a full and accurate picture of the situation, the findings suggest a rather large number of errors in public procurement under Structural Funds. The following are the main conclusions and recommendations:

 Most authorities of the management and control systems do not systematically record the types of errors in public procurement procedures. They place focus on individual errors only. It is not always assured that all authorities, especially intermediate bodies, report every error detected.

We recommend national authorities to systematically record the types of errors detected in public procurement procedures. This is the only way to obtain a full picture of these errors and address them.

 In 2007, the Coordination Committee of the Funds (COCOF) issued guidelines for determining financial corrections with regard to irregularities in the application of public procurement regulations to contracts co-financed by the Structural Funds. Although the description of the categories is rather ambiguous and vague, most Member States used the COCOF guidelines in their original version without further developing them.

We recommend that national authorities refine the description of the categories and when needed elaborate categories and rates of the COCOF guidelines further in order to ensure a uniform and just application at national level. In addition to that, it would be helpful if the European Commission distributed good practices on how the guidelines are applied in the Member States.

 The national management and control systems detected more public procurement errors in contracts with values below the EU thresholds than above the EU thresholds. However, the average financial impact of errors was higher in procedures above the EU thresholds than below the EU thresholds.
Although most authorities already strive to prevent errors in public procurement procedures, we recommend national authorities to take more targeted action in order to reduce the most common errors in public procurement procedures and those with the highest financial impact.

 According to the findings of the Working Group “lack of knowledge” is the most common reason for errors in public procurement, followed by ‘interpretation difficulties’.
We recommend the Member States to request the European Commission to further clarify the legal framework and reduce the administrative burden for the contracting authorities and the bidders, but without resulting in limitation of the equal access, fair competition and efficient use of public funds. Further to that, we recommend Member States to take the following steps in order to prevent or reduce errors in the area of public procurement:

 They should keep public procurement rules as simple as possible and not change them too radically or too frequently.

 Some Member States should improve the knowledge of the staff of the national authorities in the field of public procurement in order that they are equipped to support beneficiaries and prevent errors.

 Member States should improve their communication policy and provide better information to beneficiaries.

They should try to ensure that beneficiaries exert due diligence at all stages of public procurement.