Audits and Remedies in EU Funded Public Procurement

Abstract

In general, the legality of actions carried out during public procurement is decided by review bodies appointed at the national level. When the procurement involves EU funds, monitoring the legality of such procedures also involves a system of audits and other controls as part of the management and control of funds, involving specialised institutions. The interaction between the two systems is not regulated at the EU level and regulation by Member States is also incomplete in certain cases, leading to friction between the decisions of review bodies and auditors. This article explores in detail institutional competences in EU-funded public procurement and examines how the system of audits and other controls interacts with traditional review procedures at the EU and national level. These are presented both from the EU perspective and from the national perspective, using the Hungarian institutional system as an example. The article analyses the issues arising from overlapping institutional competences and proposes certain possible solutions to deal with these issues.