Commission Decision of 5 March 2008 laying down rules for the implementation of Council Decision 2007/435/EC establishing the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals for the period 2007 to 2013 as part of the General programme ‘Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows’ as regards Member States' management and control systems, the rules for administrative and financial management and the eligibility of expenditure on projects co-financed by the Fund (notified under document number C(2008) 795) (Only the Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish texts are authentic) (2008/457/EC)

I.5. Record of expenditure

1. Expenditure shall correspond to payments made by the final beneficiary. These must be in the form of financial (cash) transactions, with the exception of depreciation.

2. As a rule, expenditure shall be justified by official invoices. Where this cannot be done, expenditure shall be supported by accounting documents or supporting documents of equivalent evidential value.

3. Expenditure must be identifiable and verifiable. In particular,

(a)

it must be recorded in the accounting records of the final beneficiary;

(b)

it must be determined in accordance with the applicable accounting standards of the country where the final beneficiary is established and with the usual cost accounting practices of the final beneficiary; and

(c)

it must be declared in accordance with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation.

4. Where applicable, the final beneficiaries are obliged to keep certified copies of the accounting documents justifying income and expenditure incurred by the partners in relation to the project concerned.

5. The storage and processing of such records must comply with the national data protection legislation.