Management and control of financial instruments set up at national, regional transnational or cross-border level
Article 9
1. For operations involving support from programmes to financial instruments set up at national, regional transnational or cross-border level referred to in Article 38(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, the managing authority shall ensure that: (a) the operation complies with applicable law, the relevant programme and the relevant funding agreement, both during the appraisal and selection process of the operation and during the set-up and implementation of the financial instrument; (b) funding agreements contain provisions on audit requirements and on the audit trail in accordance with point 1(e) of Annex IV to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013; (c) management verifications are carried out throughout the programming period and during the set-up and implementation of the financial instruments in accordance with Article 125(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 for the ERDF, the ESF, the Cohesion Fund and the EMFF, and in accordance with Article 58(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 for the EAFRD; (d) supporting documents for expenditure declared as eligible are: (i) kept for the operation by the managing authority, the financial intermediary, or the body that implements the fund of funds where the financial instrument is implemented through a fund of funds, in order to provide evidence of the use of the funds for the intended purposes, of compliance with applicable law and of compliance with the criteria and the conditions for funding under the relevant programmes; (ii) available to allow verification of the legality and regularity of expenditure declared to the Commission; (e) supporting documents allowing verification of compliance with Union and national law and with the conditions of funding include at least: (i) documents on the establishment of the financial instrument; (ii) documents identifying the amounts contributed by each programme and under each priority axis to the financial instrument, the expenditure that is eligible under the programmes and the interest and other gains generated by support from the ESI Funds and re-use of resources attributable to the ESI Funds in accordance with Articles 43 and 44 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013; (iii) documents on the functioning of the financial instrument, including those related to monitoring, reporting and verifications; (iv) documents demonstrating compliance with Articles 43, 44 and 45 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013; (v) documents concerning exits of programme contributions and the winding-up of the financial instrument; (vi) documents on the management costs and fees; (vii) application forms, or equivalent, submitted by final recipients with supporting documents, including business plans and, when relevant, previous annual accounts; (viii) checklists and reports from the bodies implementing the financial instrument, where available; (ix) declarations made in connection with de minimis aid, if applicable; (x) agreements signed in connection with the support provided by the financial instrument, including for equity, loans, guarantees or other forms of investment provided to final recipients; (xi) evidence that the support provided through the financial instrument was used for its intended purpose; (xii) records of the financial flows between the managing authority and the financial instrument, and within the financial instrument at all levels, down to the final recipients, and in the case of guarantees proof that underlying loans were disbursed; (xiii) separate records or accounting codes for programme contribution paid or guarantee committed by the financial instrument for the benefit of the final recipient. 2. For operations involving support from programmes to financial instruments under the ERDF, the ESF, the Cohesion Fund and the EMFF, the audit authorities shall ensure that financial instruments are audited throughout the programming period until closure both in the framework of systems audits and audits of operations in accordance with Article 127(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013. For operations involving support from programmes to financial instruments under the EAFRD, the audit bodies shall ensure that financial instruments are audited throughout the programming period until closure in the framework of systems audits and audits of operations in accordance with Article 59 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 4 ) . 3. Where financial instruments are implemented by the EIB pursuant to Article 38(4)(b)(i) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013: (a) the managing authority shall mandate a firm which shall operate under a common framework established by the Commission to carry out on-the-spot verifications on the operation within the meaning of Article 125(5)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013; (b) the audit authority shall mandate a firm which shall operate under a common framework established by the Commission to carry out audits on the operation. The audit authority shall base its audit opinion on the basis of the information provided by the firm mandated. 4. In the absence of a common framework established by the Commission as referred to in paragraph 3, the managing authority shall submit a proposed methodology for carrying out on-the-spot verifications and the audit authority shall submit a proposed methodology for audits for agreement by the Commission.