Anti-fraud practice fiches

• Author: Mélissa Campagno - Goya Razavi - Brian Kessler - Léna Bonnemains - Olga Mala
• Pages: 12-51

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DG REGIO

Compendium of anti-fraud practices for preventing and detecting fraud and corruption

in ESI Funds

6. Anti-fraud practice fiches

Practice 1 – MA’s monitoring system shared

with other entities

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Summary of the practice

One designation criteria for MAs in the 2014-2020

programming period is ensuring that all exchanges of

information betw een beneficiaries and the MA, IBs, CA

and AA can be carried out by means of electronic data

exchange (As per Article 122(3) of CPR).

MAs have thus introduced electronic manage ment and

monitoring syste ms to carry out all projects’ operations

and sometimes, public procurement procedures.

These systems vary and can consist of completely new

systems or existing informa tion systems to which new

modules and functionalities have been added to meet

designation criteria. Such systems allow for the sharing

of information between ESI Funds authorities and

beneficiaries, as well as ensure an audit trail and a strong

traceability of operations.

This anti-fraud practice presents examples of MAs which

have met the designation criteria, ensuring an equ al

sharing of information, a fast coordination of activities,

and a strong audit trail, facilitating the review by audit

authorities.

Practice spotted in…

Expected impact on anti-fraud systems

Transparency

Information relate d to the applicant selection process is

encoded and available on the platform to all relevant

stakeholders depending on their access rights, thereby

ensuring transparency an d integrity. This information

can include documents such as project appraisal analyses

and reports resulting from evaluation committees and/or

the project implementation phase, such as declarations of

payment and other supporting documents.

Increase traceability and avoid

document forgery

The archiving of documents at each stage of th e co-

financed project’s lifecycle ensures an auditable pa per

trail. In some cases, documents published in the system

are locked and cannot be chan ged after official

submission to prevent possible document forgery and

ensure that all users have access to the same version of the

document.

Coordination between stakeholders

Such information systems ensure that the most recent

information is shared between all relevant sta keholders

concerned and that anyone can consult the status of an

activity. In some cases, after a modification to a document

or an operation is done, an automatic notification is sent

through the platform to inform all relevant stakeholders.

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Practice 1 – MA’s monitoring system shared

with other entities

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Examples of the practice

Belgium – EUROGES database as a unique platform

connecting all relevant stakeholders

How it works

The Walloon government is the MA responsible for OP

ERDF ‘Wallonia-2020 .EU’. It uses the so-called

EUROGES database as a platform for the coordination,

management, monitor ing, control a nd evaluation of

projects co-fina nced by ERDF. Among other goals,

EUROGES has a number of modules designed to facilitate

the recording and sharing of information between

stakeholders. It also keeps a record of all user activities

and documents submitted, creating a clear audit trail for

all operations.

EUROGES is composed of an award and a management

module. The award module serves to carry out the

evaluation and award of projects and allows sharing

useful information between beneficiaries and the MA,

IBs, and members of a special Task Force, which provides

advice during project appraisal.

Unique features

The management module, allows users to ma nage the

data collected in the selection of applicants, an d collects

new data specific to the monitoring of projects such as

annual updates of indicators, biannual u pdates of

projects’ physical progress, and quarterly updates of

projects’ financial data. This information can be accessed

by the services of the EC, beneficiaries, the AA, exter nal

auditors, t he CA, the various ac tors within the MA, and

the IBs, so they can mon itor the progress of projects co-

financed by ERDF.

The

EUROGES platform also allows beneficiaries to

submit standard documents to the IBs or the MA, such as

receipts, project fiches, project listings, eligibility analyses

etc. Users can access predefined electronic formats to

create their declaration of payments, and upload scans of

supporting documents such as invoices, proofs or

payments, timesheets, etc.). Moreover, the system keeps

a log of users’ actions, and alerts the relevant authorities

when a submission is made.

There is also an interface between EU ROGES and the

system used by the CA, a llowing for the transfer of

payment requests made by benefic iaries and other

supporting documents.

A publ ic procurement module has been created fo r

the new programming period, enabling beneficiaries to

enter a s eries of new, predefined data relatin g to their

procurements as well as attach supporting documents.

Once the encoding of the predefined data and supporting

documents has been completed, beneficiaries can submit

these to the IB or MA, which proceeds to the first level

controls of the project. Opinions issued are directly

encoded in the manageme nt section of EUROGES and

before issuing a final opinion of its control, the MA or IB

can request additional information to the beneficiary.

Finally, the platform can also be used to exc hange

messages between users via a chat function.

Expected impact

This anti-fraud practice is considered a hard prevention measure designed to mitigate:

• The risks of manipulation of projects’ costs and quality; and

• The lack of an anti-fraud culture within an authority and, on a larger scale, within a

Member State, when consistently applied by several authorities.