Article 1Administrative controls

1.

The Responsible Authority shall carry out administrative controls on all financial declarations sent by the beneficiaries with the aim of receiving Union funding, in accordance with the grant agreements defined in point (d) of Article 1 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/20142 (‘financial declarations’). These controls shall, as a minimum, include the following elements:

(a)

checks designed to confirm the formal correctness and the arithmetic accuracy of the financial declarations;

(b)

checks to confirm that the project has achieved the objectives set out in the grant agreement or that progress is being made towards achieving those objective;

(c)

an analytical review to assess the relevance of the declared expenditure in the financial declarations and its compliance with the requirements set out in the grant agreement and the applicable Union and national rules.

2.

Where administrative controls reveal inconsistencies or irregularities, the Responsible Authority shall carry out detailed checks in order to assess the legality and regularity of the expenditure, in particular by reviewing a targeted sample of supporting documents.

3.

The Responsible Authority may require the beneficiary to obtain an audit certificate and an audit report covering all the aspects referred to in points (a) and (c) of paragraph 1, issued by an independent auditor. In that case, the Responsible Authority shall set out the scope of the controls to be performed by the independent auditor as well as the template of the audit report.