Legal provision for the establishment and operation of the Control System:

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 718/2007 of 12 June 2007 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 establishing an instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA)
Article 108 - Control system

In order to validate the expenditure Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will set up a control system making it possible to verify:

• the delivery of the products and services;
• the soundness of the expenditure declared for operations or parts of operations implemented on its territory;
• the compliance of such expenditure, related operations, as well as tendering procedures with Community rules and its national rules;
• the compliance of such expenditure, related operations, or parts of operations to the eligible costs given in the application.

For this purpose each country will designate controllers responsible for verifying the legality and regularity of the expenditure declared by each beneficiary participating in the operation. After a selection procedure carried out according to the respective national legislation of the two countries, JMC approves a list of controllers (LC). They will be contracted as physical persons by MA (framework agreement and contract).

Depending on the number of contacts and control needs maximum 3-4 controllers per country from the LC will be used.

Where the verification of the delivery of the products and services co-financed can be carried out only in respect of the entire operation, such verification shall be performed in accordance with Article 108 (1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 718/2007 of 12 June 2007.

Expenditure will be validated by the controllers within a period maximum of three months from the date of its submission by the lead beneficiary to the controllers.