1.1

Identification of the Audit Authority and other bodies that have been involved in preparing the report.

1.2

Reference period (i.e. the financial year (1)).

2.1

Details of any significant changes in the management and control systems related to the competent authorities' responsibilities (including, where applicable, any delegation of functions), the effective date of such changes as well as the impact of these changes on the audit work.

2.2

Based on the audit work carried out by the Audit Authority, confirmation of whether the management and control system still complies with the designation criteria defined in Article 2 and Annex I of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014.

2.3

Information on reporting to the Designating Authority on the Responsible Authority's compliance with the designation criteria set out in Article 2.2 and Annex I of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014.

3.1

Details of changes that have been made to the audit strategy and an explanation of the reasons for those changes, in particular details of any modifications to the sampling method used for audits of expenditure (see section 5 below).

4.1

Details of the bodies that have carried out system audits to verify whether the management and control system of the fund have functioned effectively (as provided for in Article 14(2) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014).

4.2

In relation to Table 10.1 “Results of system audits” annexed to the annual control report, a description of the main findings and conclusions drawn from system audits on key requirements.

4.3

Indication of whether any problems detected are considered to be systemic in nature, quantification of irregular financial data and applicable corrective measures to address such systemic errors, including any related financial corrections made in accordance with Article 46 of Regulation (EU) No 514/2014 and Implementing Regulation (EU) No 378/2015.

4.4

Information on the follow-up of audit recommendations from system audits carried out in previous years.

5.1

Details of the bodies that carried out the audits of expenditure (as provided for in Articles 14.3 and 14.4 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014).

5.2

Description of the sampling methodology applied, specifying the sampling parameters (2) used and the underlying calculations and professional judgement applied to the sample selection (3), the calculation of the total error rate (including stratification where applicable) and information on whether the methodology is in line with the audit strategy. If stratification is applied, the strata parameters need to be described.

5.3

Analysis of the principal results of the audits of expenditure, describing the number of sample items audited, the respective amounts and type of financial data audited, the nature (4) and type (5) of errors detected and the applicable corrective measures proposed by the Audit Authority (including measures to avoid similar errors in the future, financial corrections for the individual irregularities detected as well as any applicable extrapolated or flat-rate financial corrections (6)). If stratification is applied, further information by strata is to be provided in this section and summarised in Table 10.2 “Results of audits of expenditure” annexed to the annual control report.

5.4

If the audit sample includes interim payments and/or final payment clearing advance payments declared in the accounts of previous financial years, the amount of the advance payments falling within the scope of audits of expenditure, the errors detected and applicable financial corrections relating to these advance payments shall be presented in Table 10.3 “Results of audits on additional expenditure” annexed to the annual control report.

5.5

Explanations on how the error rates presented in Table 10.2 are calculated and, if applicable, information on the audits of additional expenditure presented in Table 10.3.

5.6

Information on whether any irregularities detected by the audits of expenditure are considered to be systemic in nature and therefore entail a risk to other payments, including the quantification of their impact on the population and any related financial corrections.

5.7

Information on the status of implementation by the Responsible Authority of the corrective measures including financial corrections proposed by the Audit Authority as a result of the audits of expenditure before submitting the “final accounts” to the Commission. Any possible deviations between the corrections proposed by the Audit Authority and the corrections implemented by the Responsible Authority should be disclosed.

5.8

Information on the follow-up of audits of expenditure carried out in previous years, in particular on deficiencies of a systemic nature.

6.1

Details of the bodies that have carried out audits of accounts (as provided for in Article 14.5 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014).

6.2

Description of the audit approach used to verify the financial data in the accounts accompanying the request for payment of the annual balance submitted by the Responsible Authority defined in Article 14.5 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014. This should include a reference to the audit work carried out as part of the system audits (detailed in section 4) and the audits of expenditure (detailed in section 5) with relevance to the assurance required on the accounts.

6.3

Conclusions drawn from the audit of accounts regarding the true and fair view of the financial data in the accounts accompanying the request for payment of the annual balance submitted by the Responsible Authority, as well as the financial corrections made and reflected in the accounts as a result of such audits.

6.4

Indication of whether any irregularities detected are considered to be systemic in nature and the applicable corrective measures taken.

7.1

Description of the procedure for coordination between the Audit Authority and any audit bodies that carried out audits as provided for in Article 13 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1042/2014, where appropriate.

7.2

Description of the procedure for supervision and quality review applied by the Audit Authority on the audit work carried out by such audit bodies.

8.1

Where applicable, information on reported fraud and suspicions of fraud detected as part of the audits performed by the Audit Authority (including the cases reported by other national or EU bodies and related to the operations audited by the Audit Authority), together with the measures taken.

8.2

Where applicable, subsequent events that occurred after the “draft accounts” for the financial year were transmitted to the Audit Authority and before the associated annual control report was transmitted to the Commission, which may be relevant for the opinion issued by the Audit Authority. In particular, any variances between the financial data presented by the Responsible Authority in the “draft accounts” (i.e. the population from which the audit sample was drawn (7)) and the final accounts submitted to the Commission should be disclosed and explained.

9.1

9.2

10.1

10.2

10.3

10.1

10.2

10.3

(1)

(2)

(3)

However, for reporting purposes only the interim payments or final payments sampled from the draft accounts of the current financial year shall be reported in Table 10.2 (Column C) and taken into consideration for calculating the audit coverage for the current financial year (Column D).

The “amount of the advance payments” cleared by interim payments and/or final payments and verified within the scope of audits of expenditure shall be reported in Table 10.3, Column M. See also footnote 8.

(4)

Only the amount of errors relating to the audited interim payments or final payments drawn from the draft accounts of the current financial year shall be taken into consideration for the calculating and reporting of the amount of errors and the error rate in Table 10.2, columns E and F.

The amount of detected errors that have an impact on the “amount of advance payments” cleared should be reported in Table 10.3, Column N.

(5)

The Audit Authority shall describe the methodology used to estimate the total error rate as well as the underlying calculations (including information on stratification, where applicable) in section 5 of the annual control report. In principle, the total error rate shall be the sum of the projected random errors and, if applicable, the total amount of systemic errors in the population and any uncorrected anomalous errors, divided by the population.

(6)

Any financial corrections relating to the “amount of advance payments” cleared should be reported in Table 10.3, Column O.

(7)

Any non-corrected errors in the “amount of advance payments” cleared should not be included in the calculation of the residual error rate for the accounts for the current financial year.

(8)