Objective
Specific Objectives
1. Contribution towards harmonization of reports of Certifying Bodies. So far, the review of two reports of certifying bodies has revealed deviations in control and reporting practice as well as the transferability of practices between various Bodies certifying payments in identical budgetary lines in different Member States. Findings from an in-depth study of three reports of certifying bodies will be presented in a synthesis report with a view to the preparation of guidelines by DG-AGRI;
2. Methods for the estimation of overpayment will be developed, implemented, applied and evaluated in auditing problems.
3. After the request of the primary customer DG, the project team is expected to contribute to the review of chapters of the Operational Handbook for the Audit of EAGGF-Guarantee Expenditure.
Planned Deliverables
4. Reports reviewing four annual reports of Certifying Bodies with a view to the preparation of guidelines delivered to DG-AGRI;
5. Report on Bayesian and classical estimation of overpayment in auditing applications delivered to DG-AGRI. Software implementing methods developed;
6. Contribution to the revision of selected chapters of the Operational Handbook for the Audit of EAGGF-Guarantee Expenditure.
Specific deliverables to DGs:
As above.
As a result of the research:
Submission to a peer review journal with references to sectors and Member States appropriately masked.
Summary of deliverables 2001: 31/12/2001
1. Arsenis, S., and A. Karvounaraki (2001). On Reports of Certifying Bodies with Particular Reference on Harmonization in Reporting. ISIS/RMDS/402 draft, to be finalized within 20.12.2001.
The reports of two certifying bodies on two paying agencies in two different member States for exercises 1997 and 1998 were studied with an interest on the extent to which previous auditing experience can be of use in current audits.
As a result of our study we concluded that particular emphasis has to be placed on how to standardize the control work and the presentation of results deriving from it, the choice of control parameters, e.g. audit risk, materiality and expected error to define sample size, the estimation and testing procedures used, and the definition of errors. The extent to which beneficiaries confirmed by the certifying bodies to have been involved in irregularities or frauds are independently known to have been associated with similar practices in the past is also quantified. Results of this work were presented in a seminar to customer staff on 07.02.2001;
2. Vogiatzi T. (2001). Corrections imposed by Financial and Compliance Decisions under the New Clearance of Accounts System. ISIS/RMDS/403 draft, to be finalized within 20.12.2001.
All financial clearance decisions and compliance decision 2000/216/EC under the reformed Clearance of Accounts procedure together with the Clearance of Accounts Unit audit summary report were scanned to compile a four-way table of monetary corrections done per Member State, sector, budgetary position and year. In 2001 amounts corrected will also be presented as fractions of advances paid and work will include the five remaining compliance decisions to maintain updated summaries of the present state of corrections;
3. ASCA project team (2001). Review of the work of professor van Batenburg on allocating materiality and aggregating audit evidence.
To be finalized within 20.12.2001.
Output Indicators and Impact
The incorporation of findings and recommendations reported in deliverables 1 above into future guidelines of DG AGRI to Certifying Bodies.
Summary of the project
The project team has conducted a review of auditing practice and a statistical analysis of accessible audit data. Such data include compliance audits for payments for export refunds, annual reports of certifying bodies and data contained therein, data collected from an internal audit and data collected for the annual Statement of Assurance of the European Court of Auditors. This activity will gives insights into error rates in payment populations in terms of the probability of error and the distribution of tainting.
The estimation of total overpayment is addressed by Bayesian and empirical Bayesian procedures as well as classical re-sampling procedures.
Statistical sampling methods used in auditing and derived two-sided confidence or probability intervals for total overpayment will be benchmarked by computer simulation exercises. Particular emphasis is placed on sample size, coverage of the intervals and the length of the confidence intervals as well as sample size, significance level and power of tests used. Sampling methods will include customarily used Monetary Unit Sampling.
The synthesis of the above will be the formulation of a valid statistical basis to derive corrections for estimated overpayments that will be acceptable by auditors and payment agencies and defensible in the Court of Justice.
Rationale
Currently, the Common Agricultural Policy provides payments to beneficiaries via approximately ninety paying agencies in the European Union. Payments range from a few thousands to several million, depending on the Member State and the sector to be cleared. Auditing such payments is then done for each paying agency by the Certifying bodies or for specific sectors and Member States by DG AGRI services. These audits utilize sampling methods in selecting the payments to be audited and need defensible and valid statistical procedures to infer total overpayment and impose corrections.
In executing this project, the JRC offers independent advice and state of the art statistical expertise and contributes to the improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of auditing of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- natural sciences mathematics applied mathematics mathematical model
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
Ispra
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.