Cost of Controll - operational programme employment in Austria 2007-2013 - European Social Fund (ESF) and European Rural Development Fund (ERDF) (Working Group on the Structural Funds)

Report ID: 10

Bericht des Rechnungshofes

Kosten der Kontrolle – Operationelles Programm Beschäftigung in Österreich 2007 bis 2013

Prüfungsziele

Ziele der Überprüfung waren die Erhebung der Kosten der Umsetzung des Kontrollsystems für das Operationelle Programm Beschäftigung Österreich 2007 bis 2013 (OP Beschäftigung; kofinanziert durch den Europäischen Sozialfonds (ESF) und nationale Mittel) sowie die Beurteilung, ob die österreichischen Behörden die Vorgaben und Vorschriften der Europäischen Union (EU) bezüglich der Einrichtung des Kontrollsystems eingehalten haben.

Die Ergebnisse dieser Überprüfung fließen auch in die koordinierte Prüfung der Arbeitsgruppe Strukturfonds IV des Kontaktausschusses der Präsidenten des Europäischen Rechnungshofes und der Obersten Rechnungskontrollbehörden (ORKB) der EU–Mitgliedstaaten ein, an der die ORKB von zwölf EU–Mitgliedstaaten teilnahmen.

Kosten der Kontrolle – ein EU–weites Thema

Bei der zwischen der Europäischen Kommission (Kommission) und den Mitgliedstaaten geteilten Mittelverwaltung ist der Mitgliedstaat — ungeachtet der Gesamtverantwortung der Kommission — auf Basis der gemeinschaftsrechtlichen Vorgaben für die Verwaltung und Kontrolle der EU–Mittel auf staatlicher Ebene zuständig.

Da der Europäische Rechnungshof — beginnend mit 1994 — insgesamt stets nur eingeschränkte jährliche Zuverlässigkeitserklärungen zum Rechnungsabschluss der EU abgab, setzte die Kommission in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der nationalen Verwaltungs– und Kontrollsysteme. Die gesetzten Maßnahmen erhöhten die Komplexität der Verwaltung und der Kontrolle der Förderungsmaßnahmen. Dies führte zu Diskussionen über die damit verbundenen Kosten, insbesondere im Hinblick auf deren Verhältnismäßigkeit zum Förderungsvolumen.

Im April 2009 forderte das Europäische Parlament eine Bewertung der Kontrollkosten aller Ausgabenbereiche der EU – auch unter Einbeziehung der Kosten der Mitgliedstaaten. Diese Bewertung sollte als Basis für einen interinstitutionellen Dialog zwischen Europä- ischem Parlament, Kommission und Rat über das „hinnehmbare Risiko“ (also jene Risikoschwelle, ab der die Kontrolle mehr kostet, als sie bringt) dienen.

Kosten der Kontrolle des OP Beschäftigung

Im Rahmen der Kontrolle des OP Beschäftigung entstanden bisher Kosten aus der Ex–ante–Evaluation, der Einrichtung des Verwaltungs– und Kontrollsystems, der Projektauswahl, der Kontrolle der Projekte an Hand von Unterlagen und vor Ort (First Level Control), dem Monitoring des OP, der Bescheinigung der Ausgaben und der Ex–post–Prüfungstätigkeit (Second Level Control). Für alle diese Felder fielen in erster Linie Personalkosten an, weiters direkte Sachkosten (z.B. IT) sowie Gemeinkosten (z.B. Mieten, Verwaltungs– Overheads).

EU-Funds (EFRE): simplification of provisions (Working Group on the Structural Funds)

Report ID: 15

Prüfungsziel

Ziel der Überprüfung im BKA sowie in den Ländern Burgenland, Salzburg und Vorarlberg war es, insbesondere zu beurteilen, in welchem Ausmaß unter den geltenden Rahmenbedingungen ausgewählte, in den Jahren 2008 bis 2011 in Kraft getretene EU–Maßnahmen zur vereinfachten Abwicklung von EU–Förderungen im Rahmen des Europäischen Fonds für Regionale Entwicklung (EFRE) in Österreich umgesetzt und ob die von der EU angestrebten Vereinfachungen auch auf Ebene der Förderungsempfänger wirksam wurden.

Marine Pollution from ships

Report ID: 21

Cyprus has over the years developed into a major maritime centre and today has the 6th largest 

merchant fleet in the world in tonnage terms. During the last few years it has taken steps to develop

its  infrastructure and improve its maritime administration in an effort to raise the standards of Cyprus 

registered ships and enhance the image of the Cyprus flag. It has signed and ratified all relevant 

international conventions and agreements and has voted national laws and regulations to enable their implementation . At the centre of this effort is the improvement of safety on board Cyprus registered ships and the protection of the marine environment.

Pollution Prevention through ship surveys

Flag State Control plays a major part in the prevention of pollution to the environment. Through the

regular inspection of the ships it is ensured that the requirements of the MARPOL Convention are

properly adhered to. The Department of Merchant Shipping has made significant improvement in this

respect during the last few  years and it has increased the number of inspections both by the

Department surveyors and the appointed surveyors overseas. Further improvement is expected as

more surveyors will be employed both in Cyprus and overseas during the next couple of years.

Control will also be enhanced as a result of the computerisation of the Department, currently under

way, which will enable the targeting of high risk ships for inspection.

The criteria for registration of ships under the Cyprus flag have been revised as from 1.1.2000 with more effective control being exercised on overage ships. An important development regarding the safe operation of the ships, which is also beneficial from the point of view of the protection of the environment, is the implementation of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code as from 1998. Cyprus has implemented the Code for most ships (tankers, bulk carriers, passenger ships)

in 1998 and will implement it for all the fleet in July 2002. On the negative side it must be noted that all ship inspections by the Department surveyors have been suspended since February 2001 due to industrial action . Even though most of the gap is filled by the overseas inspectors the government must take all the necessary measures to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

Port State Control of foreign visiting ships by the DMS is at an acceptable level and meets the requirements of the Mediterranean Memorandum of Understanding which states that at least 15% of the ships are inspected. By comparison however inspection rates by the maritime authorities in advanced  countries (U.S. Coast Guard, Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU) are much higher.

Inspections of Cyprus registered ships by foreign Authorities show a steady improvement and detention rates have decreased for the last three years. This is a direct result of the steps taken to upgrade Flag State Control. However, the Cyprus flag is still on the target list of the U.S. Coast Guard  and the Paris MoU with detention rates  marginally above average. The downward trend though leaves some optimism that the Cyprus flag will be taken off the target lists soon.

Value Added Tax and Exercise Taxes

Report ID: 24

The present document provides information on the execution and results of parallel audits conducted by the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic and the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic, which were both focused on the area of administration of value-added tax and excise taxes.

The cooperation between the two supreme audit institutions of the two countries is based on the Agreement on Audit Cooperation, signed in February 2004.

The topic of the parallel audits was chosen with a view to the fact that indirect taxes constitute very substantial revenue of the state budgets of both countries. The value-added tax structure, which allows for a refund of an excessive tax deduction, provides room for tax frauds and tax evasion. High excise tax rates, particularly those applying to tobacco and tobacco products, spirits and mineral oils, bring high profits to those who can dodge them by selling the commodities listed above illegally.

The Czech and Slovak Supreme Audit Office’s have established, inter alia, the following facts:

• Business transactions were not declared in the same way in both countries, which made corresponding exports and imports difficult to identify in the Czech and Slovak Customs Databases,
• Data entry errors in the above-mentioned customs databases made it impossible to identify some import and export transactions,
• Some exports from the Czech Republic failed to find and verify appropriate matching imports in the Slovak Repub1ic. Insofar as these cases are concerned, there exists a justified suspicion of fictitious exports for the purpose of illegally claiming a value-added tax return.
• Taxpaying entities failed to comply with certain Iegal obligations pertaining to reporting of exports and imports in value-added tax retum forms,
• Shortfalls and deficiencies were identified in the administration of value-added tax and excise taxes by Tax Offices and in their coordination with customs offices.

Value Added Tax Administration

Report ID: 25

This material provides information on the course and results of parallel audit performed by the Supreme Audit Office, Czech Republic and the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic which was concerned with the area of administration of value added tax and use of the VIES (Value Added Tax Information Exchange System).

In May 2004, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic acceded to the European Union and, consequently, income from the value added tax affects not only the State budgets of the two countries, but also the budget of the European Union as a whole. The parallel audit was concerned particularly with the procedure of tax administrators in relation to a review of the value added tax paid within commercial transactions between the individual member countries of the European Union.

Introduction of the VIES system enabled electronic exchange of information on registration of VAT payers in the individual member countries of the European Union and on commercial transactions performed by the VAT payers. Variance between information in the VIES and information stated in a value added tax return submitted by a taxpayer should alert the tax administrator to any suspicious cases and facilitate detection of tax evasions or frauds.