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Audit, Structural and cohesion funds/ESIF
Performance Audits of RRF and ESIFs 2021-2027 by the European Court of Auditors
Many rules and procedures apply to the very significant amounts of EU money that have been invested during the programming period 2021-2027 from the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). This highly practical course, provided by experts from the European Court of Auditors (ECA), will allow participants to become familiar with these rules and procedures, and discuss many case studies.
What is this course about?
This course is about the ambition of the EU to be more results-oriented in the current programming period 2021-2027 using a framework where performance and results are the keywords.
To do so, this highly practical course informs about the main funding sources in the 2021-2027 period (ESIFs and RRF in particular), their rules, differences, challenges and functioning, and presents as well all key aspects of each stage of the performance audit process.
It includes the unique feature of providing an insight into how the European Court of Auditors plan, prepare and implement their audit assignments, covering real-life audit case studies and sharing experiences of the Court’s teams.
It explains how performance is assessed during the 2021-2027 period, has some unique features and insights with regard to the analysis of costs and benefits, and explains in detail the audit methodologies and some of the tools used, such as benchmarking. The casework also demonstrates the strength of key performance indicators, and how to use them.
The innovative aspect of this course is that, when applying for this course, you will be given the opportunity to choose your preferred case study to work on from a broad range of different audits proposed by the Court’s team and you will be able to discuss your specific cases of measuring results within your organisation with the ECA experts.
What will you be able to do with what you learn?
You will be able to apply the knowledge for developing a results-based analysis system for both ESIF and RRF funds spent within your organisation during the 2021-2027 programming period by using the theory and practical knowledge from this course.
After the presentation of the theory on performance auditing, you will be able to work on a huge variety of real-life case studies in different areas in small working groups with direct involvement and guidance from the key experts from the European Court of Auditors. The variety of choices offered will enable you to choose a topic that is close to what you are working in within your organisation, or to select a topic in which you are particularly interested in. This ensures that you will be well armed to carry out an assessment of results yourself in your institution using the principles of performance auditing.
The course provides for a lot of practical tools and detailed presentations that will help you to implement the principles of how exactly to be able to assess results.
Who will benefit most?
Audit, managing and certifying authorities, intermediate bodies, beneficiaries of EU funds and independent auditors dealing with, or interested in, EU-funded projects and programmes. Also, consulting companies specialised in auditing EU co-funded programmes and projects, and representatives of ministries dealing with, and responsible for, spending public (national and EU) money.
Course venue
The George, Urban Boutique Hotel
Paceville Avenue
St Julians, STJ 3103
Malta
Programme Organiser
Ms Rafaella Giussani
Tel: +31 43 32 96 372
r.giussani@eipa.eu
Fee
The fee includes documentation, refreshments, lunches, a dinner and a sightseeing tour of Valletta, the capital of Malta. Accommodation and travel costs are at the expense of the participants or their administration.
Discounts
EIPA member fee
EIPA offers a discount to all civil servants working for one of EIPA’s supporting countries, and civil servants working for an EU institution, body or agency.
Who are the supporting countries?
Civil servants coming from the following EIPA supporting countries are entitled to get the reduced fee: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
For all other participants, the regular fee applies.
Early bird discount
The early bird discount is not cumulative with other discounts or promo codes, except for the EIPA member fee.
Meals
Dietary preferences can be indicated on the registration form.
Confirmation
Confirmation of registration will be forwarded to participants on receipt of the completed online registration form.
Payment
Prior payment is a condition for participation.
Cancellation policy
For administrative reasons you will be charged €150 for cancellations received within 15 days before the activity begins. There is no charge for qualified substitute participants.
EIPA reserves the right to cancel the activity up to 2 weeks before the starting date. In that case, registration fees received will be fully reimbursed. EIPA accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred (travel, accommodation, etc.).
A few days before the start of the course you will receive the log-in details for accessing the course materials. You can log in here.
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Our experts
Programme
| 08.30 | Registration and handing out course material |
| 09.00 | Opening of the course: introduction to the programme, objectives and methodology Iwona Karwot, Senior Lecturer and Project Leader, EIPA Barcelona |
| 09.15 | Tour de table: presentation of participants to encourage networking Luc T’Joen, Active Senior, European Court of Auditors. |
| Part I – Setting the scene: what is a performance audit, and how do we plan one? | |
| 09.30 | Performance audit approach and objectives: what is the ECA; how are results for ESIF and RRF assessed by the ECA in 2021-2027; how are topics selected for audit; what are the different types of audit; overview of the performance audit cycle; the “three E’s” tool (Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness) and the Programme Logic Model (PLM). Luc T’Joen |
| 10.30 | Questions and answers |
| 10.45 | Coffee break |
| 11.15 | Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF): legal basis; functioning and a comparison with traditional ways of spending EU- funds, including risks and challenges for ministries involved. Michele Zagordo, Auditor, European Court of Auditors |
| 12.15 | Questions and answers |
| 12.30 | The preliminary study and risk assessment, with a focus on the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and key performance indicators. Guido Fara, Auditor, European Court of Auditors |
| 13.30 | Questions and answers |
| 13.45 | Joint lunch |
| 15.15 | Outlining the performance audit plan with a focus on benchmarking as a tool for auditing and visualising performance Luc T’Joen |
| 16.00 | Workshop I: WHAT exactly should we audit and HOW should we plan it? Luc T’Joen, Guido Fara and Michele Zagordo Several case studies will be put forward (each participant to select at least two: as soon as there are five participants, the group will be formed):
Each participant will work in a team to practise:
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| 17.30 | Plenary session with short group presentations and advice from the trainers |
| 17.45 | End of the first day and sightseeing tour of Valletta, the capital of Malta |
| 20.15 | Official dinner |
| Part II – Implementing a performance audit: real-life findings of ECA audits | |
| 09.00 | Presentation of real-life findings of a selection of transport audits (seaports, maritime transport and airports performance audits), and on ‘pure policy audits’ (e.g. air passenger rights), highlighting specific tools used to measure results Luc T’Joen |
| 10.30 | Questions and answers |
| 10.45 | Coffee break |
| 11.15 | Presentation of real-life findings of high-speed rail infrastructure and PPP performance audits dealing with road transport and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), highlighting the use of key performance indicators and composite indicators. Guido Fara |
| 12.45 | Questions and answers |
| 13.00 | Joint lunch |
| 14.15 | Presentation of the real-life findings of performance audits within the social fund sphere, and related to education, Youth Employment and Child poverty Michele Zagordo |
| Part III – Reporting on a performance audit | |
| 15:45 | What kind of different products does the ECA have (annual report, special reports, reviews, opinions, …), and many useful tips on how to draft a good audit report Drafting a performance audit report:
Luc T’Joen |
| 16.30 | Workshop II: What report would you publish? Using the detailed feedback of the morning presentations on the real-life findings on the performance audit developed, participants will continue working in teams, guided by the Court’s experts, on the following:
Luc T’Joen, Guido Fara and Michele Zagordo |
| 17.30 | Plenary session with short group presentations, challenging and advice from the trainers |
| 18.00 | End of the second day |
| Part IV – Impact and follow-up of a performance audit | |
| 09.00 | Examples of impact of performance audits – follow-up of recommendations Guido Fara |
| Part V – Implementing a performance audit in your organisation – RRF work | |
| 09.30 | Recovery and Resilience Facility: past, current and upcoming work of the ECA on the RRF; how to audit and monitor RRF expenditure compared to Cohesion Policy funds: what do you need to know, and what do you need to do? Michele Zagordo |
| Part VI – Performance audit in your organisation in the programming period 2021– 2017 | |
| 10.00 | How to assess results in your organisation: a discussion on possible practical cases within your organisation, and suggestions from the ECA specialists Luc T’Joen, Guido Fara and Michele Zagordo |
| 10.30 | Questions and answers |
| 11.30 | Coffee break |
| Part VII – Creative thinking | |
| 11.45 | Workshop III: Creative thinking Each participant will work in a team to practise a few specific exercises to test their ability to work as a group while thinking about solutions ‘out of the box’. Luc T’Joen, Guido Fara and Michele Zagordo |
| 12.45 | Plenary session with short group presentations and advice from the trainers |
| 13.00 | Closure of the course and issuing of EIPA certificates to participants Iwona Karwot and Luc T’Joen |