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VAlue to public management

Winding-up declaration

Portuguese experience

Carlos TrigacheiroInspecção-Geral de Finanças (IGF)General Inspection of Finance

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VAlue to public management

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VAlue to public management Key topics

1. Portuguese audit system

2. Audit strategy

3. Specific work for closure

4. Treatment of errors and irregularities

5. Main conclusions

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VAlue to public management Portuguese audit system

IGF (winding-up body for all programmes and funds) – coordination system, audits system and audits on operations, when necessary (Art. 15 and 16, Reg. 438).

Independent (segregated) audit units in line with the Ministries and in Management Bodies – mainly oriented to audits of operations (also systems in some situations) as foreseen by Art. 10, Reg. 438.

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VAlue to public management

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VAlue to public management The role of IGF

National system coordination:• Planning, monitoring, reporting and

follow-up;• Audit standards and training of the

auditors. Coordination with Commission / EU Audit

Authorities. Responsible for communications to OLAF. Annual control report (art. 13, Reg. 438). Winding-up declarations.

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VAlue to public management The role of IGF

IGF plays a similar role for:

Cohesion Fund,

Interreg Programms,

Agriculture Funds,

Solidarity Fund,

Innovative schemes, and

European Economic Space Financial Mechanism.

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VAlue to public management

Structural funds – 24 Programmes to be closed until 30.09.2010 until 30.09.2010 (one declaration per fund):• ERDF – 22• ESF – 16• EAGGF - 10• FIFG - 9• INTERREG – 2 (co-responsible with Spain)

57 + 2 winding-up declarations

How many winding-up declarations

Cyprus,15oct2007, jvr 6

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VAlue to public management

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VAlue to public management IGF audit strategy

3. Preparation for closure(from 2007 onwards):

• Final follow-up of all outstanding issues (specific audits, monitoring of system information about audits results, audits of programmes with actions plans);

• Technical and methodological preparation for closure (guidelines, training and meetings with managing and paying authorities – treatment of errors and irregularities).

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VAlue to public management Main objectives

Have a picture of outstanding problems for each operational programme (OP)

Identify the next steps:• Audits on-the-spot on the OP with major

problems;• Improvements on the treatment of errors /

irregularities;• Assessment of the compliance with Art. 10

requirements; • Recommendations to correct the

weaknesses, if necessary.

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VAlue to public management Specific work for closure

The work done helps, but is not enough. All actors needs time and resources to

prepare their final report / declaration (MA/IB, PA, WuB).

A precise time schedule is crucial - IGF first time schedule in December 2007, after a first meeting we organized with all MA and PA - time schedule was updated.

Now, MA are preparing financial information and final reports – we hope this work will be finalized until this December.

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VAlue to public management Specific work for closure

January 2010 - we will start our final audit work:

Check coherence of draft reports, final declarations of expenditure and other relevant information performed by MA and PA – in line with Guidelines for closure;

Special attention on the treatment of errors and irregularities;

We can start in parallel with work to be performed by PA. So, final documents can be amended according our feed-back.

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Treatment of errors and irregularities

Check the work done by MA in order to: Examine and classify the type of errors:

systemic, random and isolated/anomalous; Determine the perimeter of systemic errors

and assure that they have been corrected and reported (as well as all known errors).

If the remaining error rate (random) is below 2% - OK (if art. 10 is reliable).

If it is above 2% – we have a problem to solve – art. 10 does not apply to statistical sample. So we can not follow a statistical process to conclude about error rates.

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VAlue to public management

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VAlue to public management Main conclusions

1. IGF is the Portuguese winding-up body for all programmes and funds.

2. The success of the closure exercise depends very much of the work done during the period and of the preparation for closure.

3. But a specific final audit work oriented and tailored for closure is crucial.

4. Guidelines to treat errors and irregularities are helpful, but nevertheless case decisions requires professional judgment.

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Thank youThank youfor your attention for your attention

Contact:Contact:Carlos TrigacheiroCarlos TrigacheiroInspecção-Geral de FinançasInspecção-Geral de Finançascarlostrigacheiro@igf.min-financas.ptcarlostrigacheiro@igf.min-financas.pt

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