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1. Member States shall fulfil the management, control and audit obligations and assume the resulting responsibilities, which are laid down in the rules on shared management set out in the Financial Regulation and this Regulation.

1a. Based on an analysis of potential risks, Member States may establish lighter control and audit trail requirements regarding the distribution of food and/or basic material assistance to the most deprived persons during the outbreak of COVID-19.

2. Member States shall prevent, detect and correct irregularities and shall recover amounts unduly paid, together with any interest on late payments. They shall notify the Commission of irregularities that exceed EUR 10 000 in contribution from the Fund and shall keep it informed of significant progress in related administrative and legal proceedings. The Member States shall not notify the Commission of irregularities in relation to the following cases:

(a) where the irregularity consists solely of the failure to execute, in whole or in part, an operation included in the co-financed operational programme owing to the bankruptcy of the beneficiary;

(b) those brought to the attention of the managing authority or certifying authority by the beneficiary voluntarily and before detection by either authority, whether before or after the payment of the public contribution;

(c) those which are detected and corrected by the managing authority or certifying authority before inclusion of the expenditure concerned in a statement of expenditure submitted to the Commission. In all other cases, in particular those preceding a bankruptcy or in cases of suspected fraud, the detected irregularities and the associated preventive and corrective measures shall be reported to the Commission. When amounts unduly paid to a beneficiary for an operation cannot be recovered and this is as a result of fault or negligence on the part of a Member State, that Member State shall be responsible for reimbursing the amounts concerned to the budget of the Union. Member States may decide not to recover an amount unduly paid if the amount to be recovered from the beneficiary, not including interest, does not exceed EUR 250 in contribution from the Fund to an operation in an accounting year.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 62 laying down additional detailed rules on the criteria for determining the cases of irregularity to be reported, the data to be provided and on the conditions and procedures to be applied to determine whether amounts which are irrecoverable shall be reimbursed by Member States. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts in accordance with the advisory procedure under Article 63(2) setting out the frequency of the reporting and the reporting format to be used.

3. Member States shall ensure that effective arrangements for the examination of complaints concerning the Fund are in place. The scope, rules and procedures concerning such arrangements shall be the responsibility of Member States in accordance with their institutional and legal framework. Member States shall, upon request by the Commission, examine complaints submitted to the Commission falling within the scope of their arrangements. Member States shall inform the Commission, upon request, of the results of those examinations.

4. All official exchanges of information between the Member State and the Commission shall be carried out using an electronic data exchange system. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts in order to establish the terms and conditions with which that electronic data exchange system is to comply. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 63(3).