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Independent “certification bodies” have been verifying each country’s CAP accounts for 20 years before they are filed with the European Commission. In 2015, they were given a new role – to “provide an opinion on the legality and regularity of spending for which reimbursement has been requested from the Commission”.
Examples of issues that could arise at this point include land eligibility clawbacks, such as the one imposed on Ireland for the years 2008 to 2012 for weaknesses in administering the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS).
Positive
The European Court of Auditors said that having independent bodies assess the regularity of spending in such cases was positive, because it helps member states strengthen their controls and reduce audit costs, while helping the Commission establish that European funds were spent appropriately.
However, they found “significant weaknesses” in the system and found that “the certification bodies’ opinions do not fully comply with audit standards and rules in important areas”. They also noted that the Commission still largely relied on countries’ own internal controls rather than independent certification bodies to check CAP expenditure.
Allow certification bodies to carry out on-the-spot testing and audit procedures as they themselves consider appropriate
The European Court of Auditors added that the guidelines given by the Commission in areas such as the representativeness of samples audited or the calculation and interpretation of error rates needed to be strengthened. They recommended to “allow certification bodies to carry out on-the-spot testing and audit procedures as they themselves consider appropriate”.
Ireland was among the 13 member states surveyed by the auditors to examine national-level scrutiny of CAP expenditure. The payment of European funds by the Department of Agriculture here is certified annually by an external accountancy firm. This contract was awarded to BDO Ireland in 2014 for just under €332,000.
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