Why should I bother?
When the second level control reveals irregularities i.e. funding which should not have been included in the request for payment, the individual beneficiary will be asked to pay back the ineligible funding. In addition, however, the irregularities will immediately impact on the error rate of the programme, which will have serious consequences. If the error rate exceeds 2% of the expenditure reported on programme level and for the individual partner country, payments to the programme will immediately be interrupted.
This, in turn, means that all payments to all beneficiaries will stop. An interruption can be lifted but past experience indicates that it can take anything from 6 months to 18 months. In other words, everyone will suffer if you do not bother to prepare for the second level control or if you do not ensure that only eligible expenditure is included in all your claims.