Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG9: The Rule of Law & Public Administration (Physical) Author(s) Gabor Soos Ludovika University of Public Service Budapest Hungary Title Audits and Remedies in EU Funded Public Procurement File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Gabor Soos Abstract Public procurement procedures aim to guarantee both the smooth functioning of the EU internal market and also the effective and efficient spending of the European Structural and Investment Funds. Enforceability is a key aspect in ensuring that the public procurement rules are respected. In general, the legality of actions during public procurement is decided by review bodies appointed at the national level. However once the procurement involves EU funds, the control of legality of procedures is largely taken over by a system of audits as part of the management and control of funds, involving specialised institutions. These can often determine the legality of public procurement procedures through their own account, without having recourse to a court procedure or any other review body, and they have the power to impose financial corrections. This means that the legality of procedures and any sanctions are often decided by bureaucratic bodies, rather than well-established and impartial courts or remedies institutions. In the absence of an official hierarchy between such bodies, conflicting interpretation of the law can also cause problems. The goal of the paper is to explore in detail the institutional competences in EU funded public procurement and examine how the system of audits is reducing the significance of traditional review procedures. These will be presented both from the EU perspective and from the national perspective, using the Hungarian institutional system as an example for the Member State approach. A comparison of institutions is to be made between the 2014-2020 and the upcoming 2021-2027 programming periods and also between different EU Member States. The method used for the paper will be research and commentary on current EU and Hungarian national legislation in force and analysis of the legislative proposals for the next programming period. Furthermore, research is undertaken regarding institutional competences and powers, and relevant judgments of the EU courts and the Hungarian review body will also be explored. This will be supplemented with a literature review in order to see the situation in different EU Member States and the approach of the EU institutions to this subject. The findings are expected to show that in the context of EU funded procurements the Commission is an extremely powerful institution and its audit findings must in many cases be accepted as an authentic interpretation of EU public procurement law. National review bodies often have a secondary role in the sanctions for infringements although they might play some part in determining the actual regularity of procedures. National institutions should pay more attention to audit experiences in order to ensure more consistency in the interpretation of public procurement rules. In depth research and commentary on the relationship between remedies and audits in public procurement is scarce, despite the large proportion of procurements being funded from EU funds particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. The topic should be explored in order to highlight for public authorities the legal and institutional challenges they might face when conducting public procurement funded from EU funds. The results of such research may also help Member States to avoid financial corrections as far as possible.
