Division 3 RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUDIT AUTHORITY

As established by Article 34(5)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 223/2014, my responsibility is to independently express an opinion on whether the accounts give a true and fair view, whether expenditure for which reimbursement has been requested from the Commission and which are declared in the accounts is legal^f1 and regular, and whether the management and control system put in place functions properly. My responsibility is also to include in the opinion a statement as to whether the audit work puts in doubt the assertions made in the management declaration^f2.

The audits in respect of the programme were carried out in accordance with the audit strategy and took account of internationally accepted audit standards. These standards require that the audit authority complies with ethical requirements, plans and performs the audit work in order to obtain reasonable assurance for the purpose of the audit opinion.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to support the opinion set out below. The procedures performed depend on the auditor's professional judgment, including assessing the risk of material non-compliance, whether due to fraud or error. The audit procedures performed are those I believe are appropriate in the circumstances.

I believe that the audit evidence gathered is sufficient and appropriate to provide the basis for my opinion, [in case there are any scope limitation:] except those which are mentioned in section 4 ‘Scope limitation’.

The main findings drawn from the audits in respect of the programme are reported in the attached annual control report pursuant to Article 34(5)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 223/2014.