What are the main activities?
To protect the financial interests of the European Union (EU), EU legislation (see below) requires Member States and countries benefiting from pre-accession assistance to report to the Commission irregularities (including suspected and established fraud), they have detected in areas where the EU provides financial support.
To make it easier to report irregularities, a dedicated electronic system has been developed and put at the disposal of Member States and beneficiary countries: the Irregularity Management System (IMS). The IMS is operated under the Anti-Fraud Information System (AFIS) and is used by 35 countries.
Member States, candidate countries, and other non-EU countries have set up a hierarchical reporting structure with different levels of responsibility. Around 700 reporting organisations with more than 3 000 IMS users are responsible for the timely reporting of irregularities.
The reporting workflow features different hierarchical levels and different roles within the same level to ensure that several quality checks are performed before the reports are sent to the Commission.
Reporting authorities have one or more of the areas of responsibility set out in the table below.
| Area of responsibility | Fund |
| Agriculture | European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), European Agricultural Guarantee and Guidance Fund – Guidance Section (GUID) |
| Asylum | Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), Internal Security Fund (ISF) |
| Cohesion | Cohesion Fund (CF), European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF), Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) |
| Fisheries | European Fisheries Fund (EFF), European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), Financial Instrument on Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) |
| Most deprived | Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) |
| Neighbourhood | Cross-border Cooperation – European Neighbourhood Policy (CBC-ENP) |
| Pre-accession | CARDS, CBC-IPA, HRD, IPARD, ISPA, PHARE, REGD, SAPARD, TAIB, TF, TIPAA |
| RRF | Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) |
Reporting authorities provide information on:
- who committed the irregularity/fraud (persons involved)
- the support measure, such as the fund, programme, project, and budget line
- the financial impact (expenditure and irregular/fraudulent amount)
- how the irregularity/fraud was committed
- when the irregularity/fraud was committed
- where the irregularity/fraud was committed
- the method of detection of the irregularity/fraud
- administrative, judicial or penal follow-up
- sanctions imposed
Legal basis
The reporting of irregularities and the use of the IMS are provided for in the legal acts set out in the table below.
| Competence | Funds | Regulations | |||
| Agriculture | EAGF, EAFRD, GUID | 2021/2116 | 1306/2013 | 2015/1971 | 2015/1975 |
| Asylum | AMIF, ISF | 2021/1060 | 514/2014 | 2015/1973 | 2015/1977 |
| Cohesion | CF, EGF, ERDF, ESF, YEI | 2021/1060 | 1303/2013 | 2015/1970 | 2015/1974 |
| Fisheries | EFF, EMFF, FIFG | 2021/1060 | 1303/2013 | 2015/1970 | 2015/1974 |
| Most deprived | FEAD | 223/2014 | 2015/1972 | 2015/1976 | |
| Neighbourhood | CBC-ENP | 232/2014 | 236/2014 | 234/2014 | |
| Pre-accessions | CARDS, CBC-IPA, HRD, IPARD, ISPA, PHARE, REGD, SAPARD, TAIB, TF, TIPAA | 2021/1529 | 231/2014 | 236/2014 | |
| Recovery and Resilience Facility | RRF | 2021/241 |
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What does the annual work programme involve?
The annual work programme has a budget of EUR 959 783. It will be dedicated to:
- development and maintenance;
- production services, support and training.
Maintenance and development
The Commission will further develop the current IMS with the aim of introducing features that the users have deemed necessary in the past years and that could not be introduced earlier.
The Commission will use the services of an external contractor. The total indicative available budget for the procured development and maintenance services for the IMS is EUR 513 283.
Production services, support and training
The Commission will use the services of an external contractor to ensure production services and support (including hardware and software) for the IMS to ensure that it remains fully operational.
The Commission will also use the services of an external contractor to support and train the users of the IMS.
The total indicative available budget for production services, support and training related to IMS is EUR 446 500.