Following Article 2.7 of the EC Regulation 1083/2006 - irregularity shall mean “any infringement of a provision of Community law resulting from an act or omission by an economic operator which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the Europent Union by charging an unjustified item of expenditure to the general budget”. Irregularities in the Programme can be suspected by any Programme institution (Managing Authority (MA), National Authority (NA), Certifying Authority (CA), Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS), Regional Contact Points (RCPs), Audit Authority (AA), or 1st level controllers (FLC)) Project Partners or another organization exercising control of the Programme’s and project activities.
Lithuanian side
Information regarding reporting of irregularities on Lithuanian side is defined in the Rules of Implementation of European Territorial Cooperation Objective programmes in Lithuania - point 28 and 29 of the order of the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania No 1V-359 of 10 June 2010.
JTS is responsible for collecting and registering all the information concerning the irregularities in the projects. A template of the suspected/detected irregularity report agreed between MA, NA and JTS (as foreseen in Description of Management and Control System) shall be used by all Lithuanian institutions. To report to the JTS about the suspected/detected irregularity the attached document should be used. In case the irregularity involves a Polish partner, this form should be also sent to the NA.
The suspected/detected irregularities should be reported with the use of the above mentioned form to the relevant institution.
Polish side
In case of Poland, the irregularities detection and verification procedure is described in national implementing rules which are binding to programme institutions and 1st level controllers (i.e.):
- Guidelines of the Minister of Regional Development within the scope of the manner of proceedings in the case of detecting irregularities in using the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund in the programming period 2007-2013;
- The procedure to inform the European Commission of irregularities in the use of Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund in 2007-2013, prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland;
- Explanatory Note on informing about irregularities and recoveries within European Territorial Cooperation Programmes of the Ministry of Regional Development (the above mentioned template of the suspected/detected irregularity report is the attachment to this document ;
- Internal procedures of the FLC and NA.
NA is responsible for collecting and registering all the information concerning the irregularities in the projects, as well as for submitting it to MA/JTS.
Based on these documents Polish institutions and 1st level controllers should provide information about irregularities.
source: http://www.lietuva-polska.eu