F1CHAPTER IVPROVISIONS SUPPLEMENTING PART FOUR OF REGULATION (EU) No 1303/2013 APPLICABLE TO THE ERDF, THE ESF, THE COHESION FUND AND THE EMFF
SECTION IIIScope and content of audits of operations and accounts and methodology for the selection of the sample of operations
Article 27Audits of operations(Article 127(7) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013)
1.
Audits of operations shall be carried out in respect of each accounting year on a sample of operations selected by a method established or approved by the audit authority in accordance with Article 28 of this Regulation.
2.
Audits of operations shall be carried out on the basis of supporting documents constituting the audit trail and shall verify the legality and regularity of expenditure declared to the Commission, including the following aspects:
(a)
that the operation was selected in accordance with the selection criteria for the operational programme, was not physically completed or fully implemented before the beneficiary submitted the application for funding under the operational programme, has been implemented in accordance with the approval decision and fulfilled any conditions applicable at the time of the audit concerning its functionality, use, and objectives to be attained;
(b)
that the expenditure declared to the Commission corresponds to the accounting records and that the required supporting documentation demonstrates an adequate audit trail as set out in Article 25 of this Regulation;
(c)
that for expenditure declared to the Commission determined in accordance with Articles 67(1)(b) and (c) and 109 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 and Article 14(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1304/2013, outputs and results underpinning payments to the beneficiary have been delivered, participant data or other records related to outputs and results are consistent with the information submitted to the Commission and that the required supporting documentation demonstrates an adequate audit trail as set out in Article 25 of this RegulationF2;
F3(d)
that the data relating to indicators and milestones is reliable.
F3Only the following aspects laid down in point (a) shall apply to operations subject to the financing which is not linked to costs referred to in point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013: that the operation has been implemented in accordance with the approval decision and fulfilled any conditions applicable at the time of the audit concerning its functionality, use and objectives to be attained.
Audits shall also verify that the public contribution has been paid to the beneficiary in accordance with Article 132(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.
3.
Audits of operations shall, where applicable, include on-the-spot verification of the physical implementation of the operation.
F3For operations subject to the form of support referred to in point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, audits of operations shall verify that the conditions for reimbursement of expenditure to the beneficiary have been met.
4.
Audits of operations shall verify the accuracy and completeness of the corresponding expenditure recorded by the certifying authority in its accounting system and the reconciliation of the audit trail at all levels.
5.
Where problems detected appear to be systemic in nature and therefore entail a risk for other operations under the operational programme, the audit authority shall ensure further examination, including, where necessary, additional audits to establish the scale of such problems, and shall recommend the necessary corrective actions.
6.
Only expenditure falling within the scope of an audit carried out pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be counted towards the amount of expenditure audited, for the purposes of reporting to the Commission on annual coverage. For those purposes, the model for the control report set out on the basis of Article 127(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 shall be used.