The EU Cohesion Policy has had a great impact on many processes and changes in policy-making in Poland. In the area of regional development and development policy new instruments and creation of the systems of management and control had to be introduced in the Member States (MS) which is a derivative of the EU regulations. The MS however have autonomy in shaping the systems. Those two elements contribute to increasing complexity, multi-level governance and needs strong coordination of many elements. In the article the authors decided to analyse different types of external control of the use of EU Structural Funds and relate this to the phases of the project cycle management. The authors modify definition of external control and include also  control of the system by the stakeholders of the Cohesion Policy (social control) with the focus on administrative proceedings application. Therefore, multidimensional overview on proper functioning of the systems of the SF management and control in Poland is introduced by the authors. This approach is innovative and at the same time the article gives an opportunity to gather dispersed information on control present in the literature. The methodology  is based on legal acts analysis.