Initial reporting — derogations
Article 55
1. Without prejudice to the obligations under Article 70 of basic Regulation, within two months following the end of each quarter, Member States shall report to the Commission any irregularities which have been the subject of a primary administrative or judicial finding. In that report, Member States shall in all cases give details concerning the following: (a) the EFF, the objective, the operational programme, the priority axis and the operation concerned and the Common Identification Code (CCI) number; (b) the provision which has been infringed; (c) the date and source of the first information which led to a suspicion that an irregularity has been committed; (d) the practices employed in committing the irregularity; (e) where appropriate, whether the practice gives rise to a suspicion of fraud; (f) the manner in which the irregularity was discovered; (g) where appropriate, the Member States and third countries involved; (h) the period during which, or the moment at which, the irregularity was committed; (i) the national authorities or bodies which drew up the official report on the irregularity and the authorities responsible for the administrative or judicial follow-up; (j) the date on which the primary administrative or judicial finding on the irregularity was established; (k) the identity of the natural and legal persons involved or of any other participating entities, except where such information is irrelevant for the purposes of combating irregularities, given the nature of the irregularity concerned; (l) the total budget and the public contribution approved for the operation and the distribution of its co-financing between Community and the national contribution; (m) the amount of the public contribution affected by the irregularity and the corresponding Community contribution at risk; (n) where no payment of the public contribution has been made to the persons or other entities identified under point (k), the amounts which would have been unduly paid had the irregularity not been identified; (o) the suspension of payments, where applicable, and the possibilities of recovery; (p) the nature of the irregular expenditure. 2. By way of derogation from the paragraph 1, the following cases need not be reported: (a) cases where the irregularity consists solely in the failure to execute an operation, in whole or in part, included in the co-financed operational programme owing to the bankruptcy of the beneficiary; (b) cases brought to the attention of the managing or certifying authority by the beneficiary voluntarily and before detection by either of them, whether before or after the payment of the public contribution; (c) cases which are detected and corrected by the managing or certifying authority before any payment to the beneficiary of the public contribution and before the inclusion of the expenditure concerned in a statement of expenditure submitted to the Commission. However, irregularities preceding a bankruptcy and cases of suspected fraud must be reported. 3. Where some of the information referred to in paragraph 1, and in particular information concerning the practices employed in committing the irregularity and the manner in which it was discovered, is not available, Member States shall as far as possible supply the missing information when submitting subsequent quarterly reports of irregularities to the Commission. 4. If national provisions provide for the confidentiality of investigations, the communication of the information shall be subject to the authorisation of the competent court or tribunal. 5. Where a Member State has no irregularities to report under paragraph 1, it shall inform the Commission of that fact within the time limit set out in that paragraph.