The 2024 Annual Report of the Court of Auditors puts monitoring procedures under the microscope projects of Recovery Fund (TAA), examining whether they ensure timely detection of delays.
The audit focuses on the risk of “accumulation” of projects towards the end of the period, with possible effects on the efficient use of TAA funds or even loss of European funding.
Shortcomings are identified in the institutional framework of the Management and Control System: no detailed implementation schedule is required per project (with intermediate critical dates) within OPS-TA and there are no procedures for preventing/marking significant delays through risk analysis and automated notifications.
Although there are processes for monitoring maturity and execution, their implementation was found to be poor: delays in achieving milestones were not recorded in the OPS-TA, implementers are mostly understaffed and, despite the assistance of technical consultants, gaps in adherence to procedures were not prevented. In addition, the Internal Audit services of the involved entities did not contribute to the control of the correct implementation and effectiveness of the procedures.
Where significant delays in the start of implementation were found, the modification of the integration decisions was used as a corrective measure, without recording the causes and the specific corrective measures in the OPS-TA documents.
In the field of pre-contractual audit, in 2024 the total value of audited contracts decreased to 16.2 billion euros from 16.8 billion in 2023, while the share of TAA contracts fell from 29% to 15%. Of the audited TAA contracts, 2.22% of the economic object was deemed irrevocably illegal (€55.12 million).