When carrying out operational on-the-spot controls, the Responsible Authority shall verify that the project in question is being implemented in accordance with the grant agreement. In particular, it shall check that the indicators reported by the beneficiaries are reliable and the project is proceeding without undue delays.

Operational on-the-spot controls carried out in financial year N shall cover a minimum of 20% of the number of projects being implemented during that financial year, as declared in the corresponding annual accounts referred to in Article 39 of Regulation (EU) No 514/2014. When this minimum cannot be reached in financial year N due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the controls that have not been carried out in financial year N shall be performed at a later stage during the programming period.