National Audit Office of Lithuania carried out an audit on Expenditure Accounts for 2004-2005 of the European Community Initiative EQUAL

The National Audit Office of Lithuania evaluated whether funds of the EU financial assistance programme EQUAL were used following the European Union requirements. The aim of this programme is to facilitate access or return to the labour market, to promote compatibility between the family and work life, to integrate the asylum seekers into the labour market. More than LTL 54 million are allocated to programme implementation in Lithuania.

The auditors detected that expenditure declared as eligible in the payment applications not in all cases conform to requirements of legal acts of the EU and Lithuania. To auditors' opinion internal control of the institution implementing the project and controlling the use of funds was insufficient when administering European Union financial assistance.

During the audit the Ministry of Social Security and Labour took into account observations of the auditors and presented the list of measures which would help to properly perform other implementation stages of the programme. In order to strengthen ability of its employees to properly evaluate eligibility of expenditure, the European Social Fund Agency which implements this financial programme in Lithuania organizes training for the employees whereby most frequent errors and eligibility of expenditure are analysed.

Full report is available in Lithuanian:
Expenditure Accounts for 2004-2005 of the European Community Initiative EQUAL