Annual Control Report: How to Change the Status (for EC Users)

Annual Control Report (IGJ/ETC, EMFF, FEAD, IPACB & ENICB)

 

PURPOSE OF THIS FUNCTIONALITY

This document describes the different steps and action options at the level of the Commission for the Annual Control Report (ACR) in relation to the Legality and Regularity procedure under the Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 and more specific those related to IGJ/ETC, EMFF, IPACB & ENICB and under the Regulation (EU) No 223/2014 in case of FEAD.

The Annual Control Report needs to be submitted together with the assurance package before the 15^th of February of each year.

 

CONCERNED FUNDS

IGJ, ETC, EMFF, FEAD, IPACB, ENICB

 

USER ROLES AND PERMISSIONS NEEDED

You are an identified user in SFC2014 and you have the role of EC Audit Agent (ECAA) with update access to update.

 

BEFORE YOU START, CHECK THAT…

The Annual Control Report IGJ/ETC, EMFF, FEAD, IPACB & ENICB have been sent to the Commission: The status is set to 'Sent'

 

Workflow

 

This section shows the lifecycle to create and manage the Annual Control Report.

There are no modifying reports once they have been submitted. The Commission cannot change a report – only respond.

 

Click here to see the Annual Control Report workflow diagram in high resolution.

 

 

Documents

Document Types

 

The following document types will be foreseen:

 

Description	Internal Code	Direction	Integral	Non-Integral	System	Required
Other Commission Document*	CR.OC	EC2MS		X
Other Commission internal document	CR.OI	ECInternal		X
Acknowledgment of receipt	ACK.CRSNT	EC2MS			X	X
EC assessment letter	CR.EAL	EC2MS	X			X
Official Commission’s observations	CR.OCO	EC2MS	X

*This documents have a read restrict: EC user can indicate that the document is only for Auditors or only for Managing Authorities or Certifying Authorities or for all of them.

 

Upload using Commission/ARES Reference

 

As a Commission user you can import your document directly from ARES to be uploaded in SFC2014 by entering the ARES reference number in the Commission Reference field (in the documents section). The ARES number will be immediately validated.

 

 

1.       Enter the following information:

(1) Choose the Document type (if applicable)

(2) Enter the Title

(3) Enter the Document Date

(4) Enter the Commission Reference ARES number

The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded

(5) Click Yes to confirm the action

 

Remark

If you get an "invalid ARES number" (the number cannot be found in ARES), check the ARES number has been entered correctly: Ares(2015)+digits with no space. If the ARES reference has been entered correctly, then check that the Document has been filed correctly in ARES. If the problem persists, please provide us with the document ARES number, the 'type' of document you are trying to upload in SFC2014, and the CCI of the Programme. We can then verify if there is a problem with the registration.

 

Hiding Attachments Uploaded from ARES

 

Attachments can also be hidden once the Commission Documents have been imported from ARES, so that the receiver will not be able to view them:

 

 

1.       Scroll right (1) and select the Hide Content option (2) and click on Update (3) to hide the attached file

 

Remark

If the ARES document has already been sent it cannot be deleted, but the sender can decide to hide the content for the Member State in case of an erroneous and/or accidental send. The ARES document must be a non-integral document.

 

2.       In the Documents Section (under the ‘General’ Section) select a row (1) of a previously sent ARES document and click on the Edit button (2):

 

 

3.       Select the Hide Content option and click on Update to hide the ARES document.

 

 

Action Options

 

1.       Login to https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sfc2014/frontoffice/ui

 

2.       To access into the Annual control Report (ACR) (IGJ/ETC, EMFF & FEAD) section, first click on the Audit link (1) in the menu and then on the Annual Control Report (IGJ, ETC), Annual Control Report (EMFF), Annual Control Report (FEAD),  Annual Control Report (IPACB) or Annual Control Report (ENICB) link.

 

 

3.       Choose the Annual Control Report  IGJ/ETC, EMFF, FEAD, IPACB or ENICB version you want from the list in the search screen (1) and click on Show control report link (2)

 

 

A number of Action Options are available:

 

 

(1) Return for modification

(4) Complete assessment with no follow-up

(3) Complete assessment with comments

(2) Mark as assessed with observations

 

 

Return for modification by EC

 

When an EC Audit Agent wants to return the Annual Control Report version sent by the Member State/Region because it is incomplete and needs to be modified can return it for modification.

 

1.       Click on the Return for modification link:

 

 

 

During the return by the Commission, the agent optionally add a document "Official Commission’s Observations" (CR.OCO) with attachments that will be sent together with this action to the Member State.

During the return by the Commission, the agent should also indicate which elements can be modified in the next version. At least one element needs to be selected.

This can be done either by using the Commission Reference ARES number OR by manually uploading the documents.

 

2.       The system will ask you to confirm the action.

 

 

 

3.       Enter the following information:

(1) Enter the reason for return.

(2) Indicate which elements could be modified in the next version.

During the return by the Commission, the agent should also indicate which elements can be modified in the next version. At least one element needs to be selected.

(3) Enter the Title of document

(4) Select the document date

(5) You can select if this document is the read permission restricted to certain of the 3 authorities (Audit authorities, Certifying Authorities or Managing Authorities). If left empty, default will apply. Thus will be sent to all the 3 authorities with the roles & funds & node needed.

Click on the Add button  to select the restricted authorities.

(6) Select the restricted authorities.

(7) Click on the Add button  to add the documents

(8) Enter the Title

(9) Enter the Language

(10) Select the file to upload from your PC

 

(11) Click Yes to confirm the action and return the ACR to the Member State.

 

On success, the Annual Control Report version has been set in status ‘Returned for modification by EC'.

 

Complete assessment with no follow-up

 

An EC Audit Agent with Update access can complete the assessment of the Annual Control Report and indicate there is no follow-up needed.

The Annual Control Report is in a status 'Sent' at the level of the Commission, or ‘EC assessment completed with observations’ and no newer version exists.

 

1.       Click on the Complete assessment with no follow-up link:

 

 

The system will ask you to confirm the action.

 

 

2.       Click Yes to confirm the action and complete the assessment with no follow up.

 

 

On success, the Annual Control Report version status was set to 'EC assessment completed with no follow-up'.

 

Complete assessment with comments

 

When an EC Audit Agent with Update access wants to complete the assessment of the Annual Control Report and send some comments to the Member State.

The Annual Control Report is in a status 'Sent' at the level of the Commission, or ‘EC assessment completed with observations’ and no newer version exists.

 

1.       Click on the Complete assessment with comments link:

 

 

The system will ask you to confirm the action.

 

During this action by the Commission, the agent must add a document "EC Assessment letter" (CR.EAL) with attachments that will be sent together with this action to the Member State

This can be done either by using the Commission Reference ARES number OR by manually uploading the documents.

 

Attach EC assessment letter

 

After clicking on the complete assessment with comments link the confirmation screen appears:

 

 

2.       Enter the following information:

(1) Enter the Title

(2) Select the document date

(3) Enter the Commission Reference ARES number

The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded

OR (to manually upload attachments).

(4) You can select if this document is the read permission restricted to certain of the 3 authorities (Audit authorities, Certifying Authorities or Managing Authorities). If left empty, default will apply. Thus will be sent to all the 3 authorities with the roles & funds & node needed.

Click on the Add button  to select the restricted authorities.

(5) Select the restricted authorities.

(6) Click on the Add button  to add the documents

(7) Enter the Title

(8) Enter the Language

(9) Select the file to upload from your PC

 

(10) Click Yes to confirm the action and complete the assessment with comments.

 

On success, the Annual Control Report version status was set to 'EC assessment completed with comments'.

 

 

Mark assessed with observations

 

When an EC Audit Agent with Update access wants to mark the end of the assessment of the Annual Control Report and send observations.

 

1.       Click on the mark as assessed with observations link.

 

 

The system will ask you to confirm the action.

 

During this action by the Commission, the agent must add a document "EC Assessment letter" (CR.EAL) with attachments that will be sent together with this action to the Member State. During this action the agent can also indicate which elements could be modified in the next version.

 

This can be done either by using the Commission Reference ARES number OR by manually uploading the documents. During this action by the Commission, the EC Audit Agent user can also indicate which elements could be modified in the next version.

 

Attach EC assessment letter

 

After clicking on the mark as assessed with observations link the confirmation screen appears:

 

 

2.       Enter the following information:

(1) Indicate which elements could be modified in the next version (it is not mandatory to select any of them).

(2) Enter the Title

(3) Select the document date

(4) Enter the Commission Reference ARES number

The system will detect the document(s) from ARES and the attachments will be automatically uploaded

OR (to manually upload attachments).

(5) You can select if this document is the read permission restricted to certain of the 3 authorities (Audit authorities, Certifying Authorities or Managing Authorities). If left empty, default will apply. Thus will be sent to all the 3 authorities with the roles & funds & node needed.

Click on the Add button  to select the restricted authorities.

(6) Select the restricted authorities.

(7) Click on the Add button  to add the documents

(8) Enter the Title

(9) Enter the Language

(10) Select the file to upload from your PC

 

(11) Click Yes to confirm the action and send the final position documents to the Member State.

 

On success, the Annual Control Report version status was set to 'EC assessment with observations’.

 

 

Reopen Annual Control Report

 

An EC Audit Agent with Update access is allowed to reopen the ACR version in order to undo the last action performed on the ACR by returning to the previous status of the ACR version

 

Remark

The Accounts version is in a status 'EC assessment completed with no follow-up', 'EC assessment completed with comments', 'EC assessment with observations' or ‘Returned for modification by EC’. No more recent Annual Control Report version for the same ID exists.

 

1.       Click on the Reopen link:

 

 

The system will ask you to confirm the reopen action:

 

 

2.       Click Yes to confirm the action and return to the previous status.

 

On success, the ACR version has been reopened and its status was set to its previous status.

 

 

Set Modifiable Elements

 

This situation can occur when the Commission has already assessed the ACR version with observations but wants to modify which elements can be modified by the MS in their next ACR version for this Financial Year.

 

Remark

The Annual Control Report version is in a status 'EC Assessment with observations' or ‘Returned for modification by EC’. The ACR version is the last one with this ID or is followed by a new version which still resides in the Member State. When the Annual Control Report version is not the last version for the financial year, then elements can only be set, not un-set because un-setting could interfere with actions by the MS on enabled elements.

 

1.       Click on the Set modifiable link.

 

 

The system will ask you to confirm the action:

 

 

2.       Enter the following information:

(1) Tick the checkboxes for the modifiable elements.

At least one element needs to be selected.

(2) Click Yes to confirm which elements can be modifed or No to return to the ACR.

 

On success, the checkboxes indicating which elements can be modified in a next version have been modified. The status doesn't change.