EAGGF Guarantee section, expenditure control: Member States' action programmes

PURPOSE: the financial assitance of certain Member States to strengthen their controls on EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure. CONTENT: In order to improve controls of EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure, the scope of this Regulation should be extended such that the Community can recognise and support special control measures by contributing towards the cost of controls required over and above those for which the Member States have made financial and staffing provision. Part-financing certain additional controls under the Community budget in accordance with Community legislation would partly offset the additional costs to be met by the Member States and ultimately bring about savings of Community resources. The number of controls requested may be increased considerably where widespread irregularities are suspected, from 5% to 25% or even 100%. For example, the additional checks called for in Italy in 1997 (25% instead of 5% in the arable crop sector) revealed before payment EUR 120 million of irregularities, at a cost of EUR 20 million to the Member State. It is only fair that the Community provide financial support for measures designed to prevent fraud and irregularities. As this concerns operation which cannot be planned in advance, EUR 30 million should be allocated over the period from 1999 to 2001 in the first instance.�