On-the-spot checks on annual aid applications
Article 27
1. Member States shall carry out on-the-spot checks at the premises of producer organisations, associations of producer organisations and their subsidiaries, where applicable, to ensure compliance with the conditions for recognition, for granting an aid or the balance thereof for the year concerned as referred to in Article 9(1), which shall supplement the administrative checks. 2. The on-the-spot checks shall relate to a sample representing at least 30 % of the total aid applied for each year. Each producer organisation or association of producer organisations implementing an operational programme shall be visited at least once every three years. 3. Member States shall determine the producer organisations to be checked on the basis of a risk analysis that shall take account of the following criteria: (a) the amount of aid; (b) the findings of the checks in previous years; (c) a random parameter; and (d) other parameters to be determined by Member States. 4. Advance notice of on-the-spot checks may be given, provided that the purpose of the check is not jeopardised. 5. The on-the-spot checks shall cover all the commitments and obligations of the producer organisation or association of producer organisations, its members or subsidiaries, where applicable, which can be checked at the time of the visit and which could not have been checked during the administrative checks. On-the-spot checks shall in particular concern: (a) the compliance with the recognition criteria for the year concerned; (b) the implementation of the actions and their consistency with the approved operational programme; (c) in relation to a relevant number of actions: the compliance of the expenditure with Union law and respect of the deadlines set out therein; (d) the use of the operational fund, including expenditure declared in claims for advance payments or partial payments, the value of marketed production, the contributions to the operational fund and the expenditure declared as supported by accounting or equivalent documents; (e) the full delivery of the products by the members, the delivery of the services and the genuineness of the expenditure claimed; and (f) second level checks as referred to in Article 30 for the expenses of market withdrawals, green harvesting and non-harvesting. 6. The value of marketed production shall be verified on the basis of the financial accounting system as audited and certified in accordance with national law. To that end, the Member States may decide that the declaration of the value of marketed production shall be certified in the same way as the financial accounting data. The check on the declaration of the value of marketed production may be carried out before the relevant aid application is transmitted but it shall be carried out at the latest before payment of the aid. 7. Except in exceptional circumstances, the on-the-spot checks shall include a visit to the place where the action is implemented or, if the action is intangible, to the action promoter. In particular, actions on individual holdings of members of producer organisations covered by the sample referred to in paragraph 2 shall be subject of at least one visit to verify their execution. However, Member States may decide not to carry out such visits for small actions, or where they consider that there is a low risk that the conditions for receiving aid are not fulfilled, or that the operation has not been implemented. The respective decision and its justification shall be recorded. The risk analysis criteria set out in paragraph 3 shall apply mutatis mutandis to this paragraph. 8. Only checks meeting all the requirements of this Article may be counted towards the fulfilment of the checking rate set out in paragraph 2. 9. The results of the on-the-spot checks shall be assessed to establish whether any problems encountered are of a systemic nature, entailing a risk for other similar actions, beneficiaries or bodies. This assessment shall also identify the causes of such situations, any further examination which may be required and the recommended corrective and preventive action. If the checks reveal significant irregularities in a region or part of a region or for a specific producer organisation or association of producer organisations, the Member State shall carry out additional checks during the year in the region or on the organisation or association concerned and shall increase the percentage of corresponding applications to be checked the following year.