Guidance for Member States on the Drawing of Management Declaration and Annual Summary

The MA is required to draw up a management declaration and an annual summary in accordance with Article 59(5) (a) and (b) of the Financial Regulation and Article 125(4)(e) CPR. These documents contribute to strengthening internal control at Member State level for the implementation of ESIF and to increasing accountability under the shared management system.The purpose of the present document is to give practical guidance to the Member States on their responsibilities with regard to the drawing up of the management declaration and the annual summary2.

The model for the management declaration is set out in Annex VI CIR.The management declaration comprises two parts:- the declaration itself which, in accordance with the Financial Regulation, contains three elements linked to the accounts, the use of expenditure entered in these accounts and the legality and regularity of this expenditure based on the guarantees given by the MCS (section 1.1 hereafter); and- a confirmation by the MA of the effective and compliant functioning of the MCS in relation to a number of key elements: appropriate treatment in the accounts of irregularities detected, including in the case of an on-going assessment of the legality and regularity of expenditure; data relating to indicators, milestones and progress of the programme; effective and proportionate anti-fraud measures; lack of undisclosed matters which could damage the reputation of cohesion policy (section 1.2 hereafter).The management declaration is to be drawn up for each programme separately and relates to the implementation of the programme throughout the accounting year. The management declaration should be consistent with the annual summary. In case of multi-fund programmes, where accounts should be submitted to the Commission separately for each fund, a single management declaration should be drawn up by the MA.