European Commission auditors control the allocation of SAPARD support

Since today until Friday (September 15-19) the auditors of the European Commission exercise conformity audit in the Estonian Registers and Information Board (ARIB). The auditors control if ARIB has followed all the requirements in the course of allocating the SAPARD supports of the European Union aid program.

The EC auditors have selected a few undertakings, that received maximum support and are situated mainly in the South-Eastern Estonia. The auditors assess the work of ARIB officials by means of support applications of those undertakings, starting from the reception of an application and ex-ante control up to the payment of support and ex-post control. In the course of control the auditors also plan to visit the undertakings.

In the words of Katrin Noorkõiv, the Deputy of Director General of ARIB, the Head of the SAPARD Agency, Estonia is the first country among the candidate countries, which have implemented SAPARD, where such conformity audit takes place. "Conformity audit is carried out only then when a relatively big amount of entire support has been allocated," explained Noorkõiv. "By now we have determined 89% of entire SAPARD support or 940 mln kroons to undertakings. When all the determined support has been paid out, the visit of the European Court of Auditors can be waited to Estonia, and that audit will be a degree higher than the present one."

Since 2001 up to the present 1200 projects have been determined the SAPARD support of 940 mln kroons in total. The payment of support is made after making the investment, i.e. on the principles of re-financing. By now 320 mln kroons of SAPARD support has been paid to the undertakings.