Cross-checks

1.   The accuracy of primary data under scrutiny shall be verified by a number of cross-checks, including, where necessary, the commercial documents of third parties, appropriate to the degree of risk presented, including:
(a)
comparisons with the commercial documents of suppliers, customers, carriers and other third parties;
(b)
physical checks, where appropriate, upon the quantity and nature of stocks;
(c)
comparison with the records of financial flows leading to or consequent upon the transactions carried out within the financing system by the EAGF;
(d)
checks, in relation to bookkeeping, or records of financial movements showing, at the time of the scrutiny, that the documents held by the paying agency by way of justification for the payment of aid to the beneficiary are accurate.
2.   Where undertakings are required to keep particular book records of stock in accordance with Union or national law, scrutiny of those records shall, in appropriate cases, include a comparison with the commercial documents and, where appropriate, with the actual quantities in stock.
3.   In the selection of transactions to be checked, full account shall be taken of the degree of risk presented.
4.   The persons responsible for the undertaking, or a third party, shall ensure that all commercial documents and additional information are supplied to the officials responsible for the scrutiny or to the persons authorised to carry it out on their behalf. Electronically stored data shall be provided on an appropriate data support medium.
5.   The officials responsible for the scrutiny or the persons authorised to carry it out on their behalf may require that extracts or copies of the documents referred to in paragraph 1 be supplied to them.