# Commission Decision of 29 September 2006 setting out the guidelines laying down criteria for the conduct of audits under Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls to verify compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (notified under document number C(2006) 4026) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/677/EC), Division 5.3: Independence

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Audit bodies should be free from any commercial, financial, hierarchical, political or other pressures that might affect their judgment or the outcome of the audit process. The audit system, audit body and auditors should be independent of the activity being audited and free from bias and conflicts of interest. Auditors should not audit areas or activities for which they have direct responsibility.
All relevant competent authorities should introduce safeguards to ensure that responsibility and accountability for audit and control activities, such as the management and supervision of official control systems, are kept sufficiently distinct.
Where the audit team makes recommendations for corrective and preventive action, the auditee should choose the methods to be applied for such action. Active audit team involvement in follow-up should be limited to assessing the suitability of the action plan and the effectiveness of the corrective and preventive action. Auditees should not be in a position to impede the audit programme, findings or conclusions. They should be consulted on the draft report and their comments should be considered by the audit body. Where appropriate, those comments should be taken into account in a transparent manner.
The following points may help ensure that the audit process safeguards the independence of both the audit body and the audit team:
a clear, documented mandate affording adequate power to conduct the audits should be provided,
neither the audit body nor the audit team should be involved in managing or supervising the control systems being audited,
for external audits, the audit body and audit team should be external to, and independent of, the organisational hierarchy of the auditee,
for internal audits, the following general principles should apply to ensure the process is independent and transparent:
the audit body and audit team should be appointed by top management,
the audit body and/or the audit team should report to top management,
a check should be carried out to ensure no conflict of interest exists for either the audit body or the audit team.
Independent audit bodies should be external to or separate from the management of audited activities. Internal audit bodies should report to the most senior management within the organisational structure.
Where technical expertise required for the audit is available only within a competent authority, measures should be taken to ensure the audit team remains independent. Where control activities are organised on a regional basis, technical specialists could be exchanged in order to ensure they are independent.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2006/677/annex/division/5/division/5.3 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-677/annex/division-5/division-5.3
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.