Internal and external AUDIT of the EU funded programmes and projects

Transcription

1 Seminar Internal and external AUDIT of the EU funded programmes and projects Structural Funds, Cohesion Fund and Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance Barcelona (ES), April 2015 European Institute of Public Administration Institut européen d administration publique Introduction Target group Beneficiaries eligible under Structural Funds, Cohesion Fund and IPA (national and regional), Managing Authorities, Certifying Authorities and Audit Authorities, Intermediate Bodies, as well as independent auditors and junior auditors dealing with or interested in EU-funded projects and programmes, and consulting companies specialised in audit of EU Funds or programmes and projects. Description In the previous programming period , the effective control systems and audit of EU Funds began one of the key issues in the framework of the whole architecture of the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy. The administrations at national, regional and local levels had more responsibilities to build an effective control system and to ensure a proper spending of public money than in previous financial perspectives. Audit questions are even more important now, when we are closing programmes from and starting the implementation of the current programming period The seminar will focus not only on the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, but also on the pre-accession instrument IPA II. Apart from the presentation of the relevant legislation, and methods of increasing efficiency of control and audits, the seminar will provide knowhow on combating fraud and preventing irregularities, public procurement and State Aid. The new element is the performance audit. The unique feature of this seminar is that it covers the experience of internal and external audit experts coming from the public sector, the EU Commission, as well as the European Court of Auditors and OLAF. Learning methodology Apart from traditional training methods (lectures and presentations, including concrete examples and case studies), an interactive approach will be applied. There will be discussions in question and answer sessions after each practical part. Participants will work in small working groups on concrete practical exercises and case studies, with direct involvement of EU experts. Objectives The goal of this three-day practical seminar/workshop is to give participants a whole overview and detailed understanding of practical aspects of control (external and internal) and audit of EU Funds in the programming period (closure) and

2 Programme Tuesday 28 April Registration and handing out of seminar material Opening of the seminar: introduction to the programme, objectives and methodology Iwona Karwot, Senior Lecturer and Project Leader, EIPA Barcelona Tour de table: presentation of participants to endorse networking I. Setting the scene: How the audit and control (internal and external) for Structural Funds will function in the programming period ? Main changes in relation to ? Audit and control in the programming period : rules, mechanisms, challenges and introduced changes in relation to the programming period Rafael López Sánchez, Unit C.1 Audit Coordination, relations with the Court of Auditors and OLAF, DG Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission Question and answer (Q&A) session Coffee break II. Anti-fraud and its role in the management and implementation process of EU Funds Organisation, mission and procedures of the European Anti-Fraud office. Practical examples. Piotr Baczmański, Unit D.2 Fraud Prevention, Reporting and Analysis, OLAF - European Anti- Fraud Office, European Commission Q&A session Joint lunch in the restaurant III. Organisation of internal control in different models applied by beneficiaries of EU Structural Funds: success factors of an efficient internal control system for higher absorption of EU Funds Best practices for internal audit: Hungarian case study Tünde Tódor, Audit Department, Hungarian State Treasury IV. External audit: ECA s approach European Court of Auditors approach to the audit of cohesion policy: Annual Report 2012 and current work on Audit Authorities Jiri Benes and Annekatrin Langer, European Court of Auditors Q&A session End of the first day Welcome seminar dinner Wednesday 29 April 2015 V. ECA: performance auditing Performance auditing: why do we do this? What is it and how is it done? The basic theory and a practical showcase Luc T Joen, European Court of Auditors Q&A session Coffee break VI. ECA: Audit of state aid Audit of state aid in the area of cohesion policy: practical examples and lessons learnt Jiri Benes Q&A session Joint lunch in the restaurant Audit of state aid in the area of cohesion policy: practical workshop in small working groups Jiri Benes Group presentations: evaluation of workshop results, including debates on problems faced by the participants during the exercises and possible solutions End of the second day Q&A session

3 Programme Thursday 30 April 2015 VII. ECA: Audit of public procurement Presentation of the case study: audit of public procurement in the area of cohesion practical examples and lessons learnt Annekatrin Langer, European Court of Auditors Coffee break Case study: audit of public procurement in the area of cohesion practical examples in working groups Annekatrin Langer Short break Plenary session: group presentations evaluation of workshop results, including debates on problems faced by the participants during the exercises and possible solutions Closure and issuing of EIPA seminar certificates to participants Iwona Karwot

4 Experts (in alphabetical order) Mr Jiri Benes (CZ) Auditor in the ERDF, Transport and Energy Division at the European Court of Auditors where he is mainly engaged in financial audits in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany. Before joining the Court, he was working for nine years as an auditor in the private sector in the Austria. Mr Piotr Baczmański (PL) Policy Analyst at Unit D.2 Fraud Prevention, Reporting and Analysis, OLAF - European Anti-Fraud Office, European Commission Ms Iwona Karwot (PL) Senior Lecturer and project leader, EIPA Barcelona, PhD in EU Regional Policy; she specialises in EU Funds with a main focus on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and pre-accession fund (IPA II). She has working experience as an EU expert, trainer, manager and adviser in the framework of Institutional Building and Technical Assistance EU projects in the field of regional development: Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Albania, Spain, Germany, France, Luxembourg, etc. Ms Annekatrin Langer (DE) Auditor in the ERDF, Transport and Energy Division at the European Court of Auditors where she is mainly engaged in financial audits in Germany, Spain and Sweden. Before joining the Court, she worked in the private sector in Germany. Mr Rafael López Sánchez (ES) Deputy Head of Unit C.1 Audit Co-ordination, relations with the Court of Auditors and OLAF in the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (European Commission). Before he was Head of Sector with responsibility for the ERDF and Cohesion Fund audits in three Member States: Ireland, Portugal and Spain. He has been working in DG REGIO since From 2003 to 2005, he was working as auditor in the Directorate- General for Agriculture of the European Commission. Before joining the Commission, Mr Lopez Sanchez was auditor in the Spanish public administration for seven years. Mr Luc T Joen (BE) Team leader transport and energy performance audits, European Court of Auditors. Having a fiscal economy background, Luc T Joen dealt for ten years with economic customs policy legislation and controls in the Belgian Ministry of Finances and, for 19 years, he was involved in legislation, revenue controls, investigations and financial audits as a European Commission official in the Directorates-General Taxation and Customs Union, Budget and Eurostat. As of 2008, Mr T Joen joined the European Court of Auditors leading teams dealing with performance audits in the fields of structural funds, transport, research and energy. The most recent special reports on transport of his teams, published by the European Court of Auditors deal with the effectiveness of cohesion policy spending for seaport infrastructures (SR4/2012), the effectiveness of the Marco Polo programmes (SR3/2013) and a Special Report on the cost-effectiveness of cohesion policy spending for airport infrastructures (SR21/2014). Tünde Tódor (HU) Head of Audit Department at Hungarian State Treasury (HST). Ms Tódor is responsible for organising the internal control system of HST. She is responsible for planning and leading the internal audit activity for the whole operation of HST and for maintaining the internal control system. They operate and develop the Treasury s monitoring and risk management system. She has 8 years of professional experience in the field of accounting of EU funds, she worked for Ministry of Finance, as head of Accounting Unit at Certifying Authority. She dealt with developing the bookkeeping system connecting with pre accession programmes and Structural Funds, and the accounting system of the New Hungary Development Plan; she took part in the development of the accounting module of the integrated management system for EU funds. She has also audit and accounting experience in the field of production enterprises, in the private sector. European Institute of Public Administration EIPA Barcelona C/ Girona, 20 / Barcelona Project Leader Iwona Karwot, Senior Lecturer Tel.: i.karwot@eipa.eu

5 General Information Programme The programme will commence on Tuesday at and will finish on Thursday at Seminar venue Hotel Catalonia Eixample 1864 **** Roger de Llúria, Barcelona Tel.: Working language The seminar will be conducted in English. Registration Participation fee: 1060 (includes: documentation, two lunches, a welcome dinner, coffee breaks and certificate of attendance). Accommodation and travel costs are at the expense of the participants or their administration. Deadline for registration: 14 April You can submit the online registration form which can be found on EIPA s website or send the completed registration form by to Miriam Escolà. Your name and address will be part of EIPA s database for our mailing purposes only. If you do not want to be included in our mailing database, please tick the box on the registration form. EIPA offers its members a reduction of 10% off the registration fee. This reduction is available to all civil servants working for one of EIPA s member countries (i.e. AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DK, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, MT, NL, PL, PT, ES, SE, UK), as well as civil servants working for an EU institution or agency. If you are eligible for the discount, please tick the box on the registration form. For more information, please visit EIPA s website: Please note that discounts cannot be accumulated. It is clearly stated on EIPA s website which seminars and training courses are eligible for the reductions. Full fees apply to all other seminars and training courses. For more information, please visit EIPA s website: (FAQ special discounts). The number of participants is limited (we will not accept any registrations once the available places have been filled). Payment: the fee should paid after you receive the confirmation of your registration and before the seminar takes place. Please indicate the method of payment on the registration form. For cancellations received after the deadline, we will have to charge an administration fee of 150 unless an alternative participant is nominated. Information European Institute of Public Administration, EIPA Barcelona Miriam Escolà, Programme Organiser C/ Girona, Barcelona (ES) New tel.: New fax: m.escola@eipa.eu Hotel reservations The EIPA Barcelona will be pleased to make reservations for you at the hotel where the seminar will take place (where special rates apply for EIPA participants): Hotel Catalonia Eixample1864 **** Roger de Llúria, Barcelona Tel.: Rates of room with breakfast buffet included: 105, double room for single use + 10% VAT t.t. per night 125, double room for 2 persons + 10 % VAT t.t. per night. Should you wish to make use of this possibility, please indicate the dates of arrival and departure on the registration form as well as the type of room required. Payment is to be made directly and personally to the hotel upon checking out. Please note that if you register after the deadline, hotel reservations cannot be guaranteed. Meals Lunches will be served at the hotel and dinner on the first evening at a restaurant in town. Should you require a special menu, please inform the Programme Organiser, so that this can be arranged. Confirmation of registration Please note that your registration is not finalised until you receive a confirmation from us. Moreover, your participation is not confirmed until you receive another from the Programme Organiser confirming your registration and some details. Cancellation policy EIPA reserves the right to cancel the seminar up to two weeks before the starting date. EIPA accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred (travel, hotel, etc.). For EIPA s cancellation policy, please visit our website (FAQ - cancellation policy)

6 Registration Form Internal and External AUDIT of EU-Funded Programmes and Projects Barcelona (ES), April 2015 Surname:... Title:... M / F First name:... Organisation:... Department:... Current position:... Work address:... Postal code & Town:... Country:... Telephone number:... Fax number:... address:... Invoice information Organisation:... Fiscal number/nif:... Department:... Address:... Postal code & Town:... Country:... VAT number:... Your reference number:... address:... Registration fee The fee includes participation in the seminar, documentation, coffee breaks, two lunches, a dinner, a certificate of attendance. Discount of 10% (Please check first the conditions at (FAQ - special discounts) 1060 Method of payment Bank transfer Please state the name of the participant and the reference AUDIT. EIPA s Barcelona account number IBAN: ES , BIC: BBVAESMM at the BBVA, Plaça Catalunya 5, Barcelona (ES) Credit card American Express card Eurocard/Mastercard Visa card Card number:... Expiry date:... /... Card Validation Code:... Hotel reservation Please book the hotel for me at Hotel Catalonia Eixample 1864**** Double room for single use Date of arrival:... Date of departure:... Double room Number of nights:... No hotel reservation required Meals Vegetarian Fish allowed Other dietary requirement:... To ensure the optimal organisation of the seminar, please return the completed registration form by fax or before 14 April 2015 to: Miriam Escola, Programme Organiser, Tel.: ; Fax: m.escola@eipa.eu, The registration will be confirmed by . Your name and address will be part of EIPA s database for our mailing purpose only. Please tick if you do not want to be included in our mailing database.