Activities of the Internal Audit Service
The Internal Audit Service (IAS) of the Department of Agriculture was established in June 2007 according to the article 4(6) of the Council Regulation 882/2004/EC for food safety and is staffed with an Agricultural Officer A and a Superintended of Agriculture.
The sectors of the Department of Agriculture that are under the audits of the IAS are: a) Plant Health and Agriculture Products b)Agrochemicals and Feedings Stuffs c)the Quality Products d) Legislation Control (Legislation Control units of Limassol, Paphos, Larnaca/Famagusta)
The overarching objective of IAS is to carry out internal audits, based on five year as well as yearly planning, to assess the effectiveness of official controls performed by the Department of Agriculture on the implementation of feed and food law. The main aim of the audits is to evaluate the effectiveness and adequacy of the Official Control System that Department of Agriculture put into place for the implementation of feed and food law and to ensure its compliance with the relevant European and national legislation requirements and needs.
To ensure that IAS controls are carried out effectively, a procedure has been designed and put in place. In detail, the audit is completed only when the inspected bodies have taken all the necessary corrective actions according the recommendations of IAS. In this context, auditing is a continuous assessment process that is carried out to evaluate the degree of compliance of the inspected bodies with IAS recommendations.
Additionally, the IAS monitors on a yearly basis the Multiannual National Audit Plans (MNAPs), during which the Member States have to present the national arrangements, strategies and tasks that have been foreseen to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.
The IAS applies procedures and processes ensuring systematicity, transparency etc. In this context, IAS adopted a Quality Management System during its activities since 2016, according to the International Standard ISO 9001 resulting to a substantial improvement on the audit quality and the satisfaction of the inspected entities.
For more information please contact Mrs Chrystalla Costa (ckosta@da.moa.gov.cy) tel 22464094.