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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter April 2011
1
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and
European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
Highlights1 Recommendations from the Second Level Audits 1 Threshold for bid-at-three increased1 Formulating your indicators
Dear reader,
The Project Implementation Newsletter collects topics and issues that may be interesting for project partners, first level controllers or others involved in projects supported by the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. In the second is-sue we share our observations from the monitoring of the progress reports. The aim is to avoid unnecessary mistakes and save eventual extra work on your side. Furthermore, we would like to introduce you to the main outcomes of the first round of Second Level Audits, carried out during 2010. We explain also the flexibility rule and its implementation on the partner level. The First Level
In general the Second Level Auditors are auditors appointed at national level by each Mem-ber State or Norway, respec-tively. Their task is to check, on a random sample basis, the projects’ / project partners’ expenditures that were declared to the European Commission (COM) for that particular year. The first sample of project partners was drawn in 2010, based upon the expenditure de-clared to the COM in 2009. The
Controllers will find some rec-ommendations regarding the First Level Control reports and checklists. The ENPI partners might be interested to read the note about an update of the Practical Guide of the Euro-pean Commission. In addition,
the Joint Technical Secretariat informs you about the recently published INTERACT guide on public procurement procedures, which is particularly relevant for the project partners from Belarus.
Your JTS team
selected project partners were visited on-the-spot and audits were carried out in 2010. The outcomes of the first sample were quite positive and there were only minor financial find-ings. Based on the second level auditors’ recommendations / comments we at the JTS would like to point out some general issues as relevant for all pro-jects, in particular regarding the availability of the originals.
• In general the originals should be available at the premises of each partner. In case this is not possible e.g. due to internal administration rules, the location of the originals has to be documented. • The partners have to ensure
availability of all relevant project documents until 2025. The form of archiving has to comply with the nationally accepted stand- ards, i.e. not necessarily originals in a paper form. This needs additional efforts in or- ganisations, where the project documents are stored jointly with other accounting docu- ments, because the national/ institutional rules often fore- see shorter periods for archiving. • The timesheets should be
correctly filled out.
Recommendations resulting from the Second Level Audits in 2010
Reporting system
Second Level Audit
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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter, April 2011
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
The JTS is continuously working on improving rules, procedures and forms. Several useful ideas and suggestions have been received from projects or from the members of the Monitor-ing Committee. To the larg-est possible extent these are implemented right away e.g. in the form of updates to the Programme Manual. For several more complex issues the JTS is working on further solutions, keeping in mind the next pro-gramming period in cooperation
During the project implementa-tion it often happens that the actual costs differ from the planned amount even if the planned activities were not changed (e.g. the final price of an external service is known only after the finalisation of the tender; the number of partici-pants in events is known only after the registration closure). For these situations there is the so called flexibility rule, which makes it possible to report 20%
with other ETC programmes and initiatives.
In the latest update of the Programme Manual from No-vember 2010 several improve-ments have been introduced. One of the major changes is the increase of the threshold for the bid-at-three rule from 1,000 EUR to 5,000 EUR. Although possible exceptions were for-mulated in a more extensive way, the general EU principles of economy, efficiency and ef-
or 40,000 EUR (whichever is higher) on top of the budget of any single budget line and work package. Experience shows that this flexibility is more than sufficient for the above men-tioned technical adjustments. Any larger re-allocation usually result in significant changes of the planned activities.
As the rule is applicable on the project level, the lead part-ner and the project partners
Threshold for bid-at-three increased
Flexibility rule and its application on the partner level
FLC reports and checklists
One of the second level audit outcomes was the quality and approach towards filling in these important documents. The completeness and compre-hensiveness varied from case to case. The JTS can underline that the quality in general has increased during 2010. Still, the project partners, in par-ticular their controllers, are encouraged to improve the quality of the FLC reports and checklists in order to make the control documentation clearer and more transparent for the readers and third bodies when following up on the projects’ financial issues.
The most common issues which
fectiveness nevertheless still apply for any amount contract-ed including amounts below the threshold set. In all cases the selection of contractors must be well-documented. The projects may apply the new threshold if the date of the de-cision about the selection of the contractor is after the publica-tion of the revised Programme Manual on 22 November 2010.
have to agree on a mechanism on how to apply the budget flexibility within the individual partner budgets which should be laid down in the partner-ship agreement. One adminis-tratively quite simple solution would be to allow all partners to exceed their budget line/work package budgets by a maximum of 20%. If no partner exceeds a budget line / work package by more than 20%, the limit cannot be exceeded on
the JTS detected during its monitoring activities were: • Lack of a general description
of the checks done and method used • Financial mismatches or other
contradictions between differ- ent parts of the FLC report and checklist. • Though some expenditure
were detected as ineligible, still they were not removed from the progress report but only commented on in the control report. • Missing comments on the
particular budget line checks in the checklist. • Conclusions, recommenda
tions or follow up are not filled in at all or only in a very
general way. • Relevant parts are marked
as not relevant or not checked without any explana- tion, e.g. the project reports external services but the point regarding the public procurement / bid-at-three rule is marked as not rel- evant.
The JTS appreciates the control-lers’ know-how and feedback in order to update/adjust the template. That should serve and support the controllers in their work on the one hand and the project partners, JTS, SLA or other bodies using the docu-ment as a feedback or monitor-ing tool on the other.
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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter, April 2011
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and
European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
Copy and Paste – an easy task?
the project level. The disadvan-tage would be that the flexibil-ity might not be fully used on project level. Another solution would be that the lead partner approves any partner budget change on a case by case basis and takes care simultaneously that the budget flexibility rule is not exceeded on the project level. This way the rule can be used up to the maximum point. However, this solution means several additional administra-tive efforts on the project level, including probable changes of
The structure of the cost itemisation list is identical with important parts of the partner and progress report templates. The intention here is to make it possible to copy the data easily from one template to the other. Experience shows that this task is not as simple as it might seem, e.g. because of the high variety of different national ver-sions of MS Excel, and because a simple copy and paste without additional check might lead to unnecessary technical mistakes within the data. The following advice should help you to han-dle the data in the templates: • Please use only MS Excel.
Other programmes like OpenOffice or Mac Excel un fortunately destroy format- ting, formulas or macros. • Save all forms in the MS Excel
97-2003 Workbook format (*.xls) only, also if you use a newer version of MS Excel. • Due to a protected column in
the cost itemisation list it is not possible to copy whole lines at once. Instead please copy the left and then the right parts carefully. • Even though the forms are
protected, when simply past ing data the format of the destination cells will be over- written. This can be avoided by using the function “Paste special” – “Paste values”. Un- fortunately, this function does
the partnership agreement.
When changes exceed the limit of the flexibility or in case the project would like to re-allocate a portion of the budget from one partner to another, the lead partner can apply for a so-called pure budget re-allocation. The pure budget re-allocation is possible only once during the project duration.
not always work. • Therefore, before simply
copying data from one tem plate (e.g. partner report) to another (e.g. progress re- port), please check the for mat and data in the original file. If the formats are differ- ent, it is strongly recom- mended to change the format before copying (e.g. dates in the partner report are in the mm-dd-yyyy format but your template requires dd/mm/ yyyy, etc.). For this you can use the Excel function “For- mat painter”.
• The standard format for dates should usually be dd/mm/ yyyy (day/month/year). However, the standard format might be different when the format in the Windows settings in the control panel (region and language) is not set to English. E.g. if Sweden is selected the format yyyy- mm-dd might be required and the form does not accept an entry in the dd/mm/yyyy for- mat. There are two solutions: either you change your com puter settings (control panel / region and language / for- mat) to English (UK or Ire- land) or you enter the date according to the national standard (e.g. yyyy-mm-dd in Sweden). • Furthermore, please double-
check that there are no for- mulas or references to other cells/files instead of values in the cells. • All amounts (except the ex-
change rate) must be round- ed to two digits after comma. Normally, the forms do not allow entering data in any other way. Again, though, when pasting data this func- tion might be disabled. Therefore before copying please double-check that all amounts are rounded cor- rectly.
Start > Control Panel > Region and Language
•
•
Payment of funds
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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter, April 2011
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
What is the most important information for the financial management and administration of a project? What to read first as a “newcomer”?
For financial and administra-tion staff working on the project rather rarely it is sometimes difficult and too time-consum-ing to get a complete overview about the existing financial rules and procedures in the pro-gramme and project. Therefore, to get started, it might be help-ful to have a selective look on the main issues and documents.
It might come as a surprise that the most important documents which everybody in the project should study first are not pre-pared by the Programme bodies but by the lead partner. These are the partnership agreement and if applicable all additional agreements e.g. about cost sharing. These documents have to contain the main duties of the partner along with infor-mation on the partner budget or expected contributions to shared costs. In some projects the lead partner prepares even internal guidance or manuals for the partners.
As a next step, the partners should continue with the Programme Manual. Here a selective reading might save some time. The partner should definitely study the following chapters:5.1. Budget lines and 5.2 Horizontal rules (main eligibility
rules)5.4. Project preparation and project closure costs (main rules regarding limitations of eligibility of these two project phases)5.5. Sharing of project costs (if the project shares any costs, the partner should focus on the method which was chosen by the project)8. Information and communica-tion, in particular 8.2 Imple-mentation stage (rules regard-ing publicity, use of logos etc.)10. Project implementation and reporting (other practical data about information sources, eligibility periods, reporting and accounting procedures etc.)11. Audit and control (in par-ticular the relevant first level control system of the partner in chapter 11.2.)12. Payment of grants (might be of interest, even it is rather interesting for the Lead partner)15. Closure of the project
The other chapters are of course also relevant; however, they might be more interesting for the preparation of the ap-plication or for the Lead Partner only, or they deal with some special cases, such as chapters 13 and 14, which cover the rather rare cases of decommit-ment and irregularities.
The project and financial man-agers of the project partners should of course be aware of all the information available on the programme web page (eu.baltic.net). Amongst other things, it is useful to check the country specific information, the FAQs (frequently asked ques-tions), the Projects section with sub-sections e.g. about the first level control, or the manage-ment toolkit.
The Practical Guide to contract procedures for EU external ac-tions, the so called “PRAG”, was recently revised by the Europe-an Commission. It is applicable as from 3rd November 2010. All procedures started from this date onwards (i.e. the date of publication of the procurement notice for calls for tenders) are subject to these new rules. Depending on the type of the procurement (service contracts (procuring a service provider or
a first level controller), supply contracts (purchasing equip-ment) or work contracts), a project partners refers to the corresponding chapters of PRAG.
The new version of PRAG provides clarifications of the notion “origin” (within the Rule of Origin), notably for the works contracts. The exceptions to the rule of nationality and origin are explained. More precisions and
Recent updates in public procurement for project partners from Belarus
clarifications on some procure-ment procedures are given in the new version of PRAG.
If project partners from Belarus use their own procurement pro-cedures, the tender documents must be drafted in accordance with best international practice. This can be checked by com-paring them to the PRAG rules for procurement of services, supplies and works, i.e. the rules used by the European
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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter, April 2011
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and
European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
3rd call projects – if you have not started yet, this is the last minute to start to formulate your indicators
Commission and described in the relevant chapters of PRAG. In order to support project partners from Belarus, INTER-ACT ENPI developed a guide on secondary procurement in ENPI CBC programmes. It examined the procurement legislation in
In this article we offer some advice that can help you to avoid the most frequently made mistakes when formulating indicators.
Common result indicatorsWhen specifying output indica-tors for the result ‘Increased political recognition’ please describe on which level and in which countries the project will target politicians. Please clarify what exactly you intend to do to increase political recogni-tion – for example, to increase the awareness of politicians of a specific issue, to get their com-mitment to the new methods produced by the project, or to attract additional funding for investments. Please note that politicians should be actively involved in the events – e.g. as moderators of the event or panel discussion or speakers. In case your project will produce political statements please pro-vide a short description of such a document: title, main pur-pose, its possible content and what type of organisations from which countries will sign it.
Regarding the result “In-creased sustainability of trans-national co-operative structures”, please describe what kind of transnational structure will be established, what its main purpose will be, and which type of organisations from which countries will be represented in the new struc-ture. In case you strengthen existing transnational structures (e.g. organisations, networks, platforms), please describe which structure and what spe-
Belarus and compared it to the PRAG rules. Please note that the guide is for information only. It has to be used as com-plementary information to the regulations and other relevant legislation, which are the only binding legal texts.
cifically will be changed as a result of the project activities.
Indicators for the priority specific resultsDo not try to impress by defin-ing as many indicators as pos-sible, but be focused instead. Define indicators which will in the best way demonstrate the expected main changes which will be brought about by your project activities. Be ambitious, but realistic. Please do not mix indicators with the main outputs described in the section 3.5 of the project data form. If you do not know the baseline, please keep the field empty. In case you plan to carry out a spe-cific study that will provide the baseline data, please mention it and state when this study will be available. Please study carefully the examples given in the section 10.3.3 of the pro-gramme manual.
Publicity and communication indicatorsCompared to the common indicators, communication indicators are relatively easy to measure: you just count the number of publications you pro-duce or the number of partici-pants at project events. When
The new version of PRAG and the guide on public procure-ment are available at http://www.eu.baltic.net/Bela-rus.1608.html in the section “Public procurement for project partners from Belarus”.
defining those indicators, please follow the same rules than for the general indicators: be ambitious, but realistic. There are 17 pre-defined indicators in the reporting form. The target value can also be zero, e.g. if you do not plan any flyers. You can define five additional com-munication indicators yourself, such as the number of YouTube-downloads or the number of Facebook friends – depending on the communication tools you use.
When planning (and later reporting), please count for the “Number of publications distributed” the number of hard copies of all publications you print. The number of issues goes to the “Number of bro-chures produced” and “Number of flyers produced”.
When your project maintains only one website, please report this website only once and not in every reporting period. Please also report every “ad-dress e-mailed to” only once – in the next progress report only add the new email addresses.
Please remember
The indicator system is created to help you • demonstrate what exactly will
be changed in the region as the result of project activities and money spent & • follow up regularly on how far
and well the project is pro-
ceeding in achieving expected change. • Communication indicators will
help you to measure, whether aims of the communication plan have been achieved and identify which project com- munication aspects need to be improved.
Continued on page 6
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PIN - Project Implementation Newsletter, April 2011
Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument
GeneralDo not leave indicators defini-tion till the last moment, it takes some time. Make sure that everybody in your project partnership understands the indicators and their benefit.
Commit yourself to the achieve-ment of indicators. Regularly follow up on how far you have come with the achievement of indicators. For further details please see the Guidance to the Progress Report at
eu.baltic.net/Progress_re-port.6771.html.
The information in this Project Implementation Newsletter has been obtained, extracted and compiled properly and any recommendation given by it has been carefully prepared and checked by the Joint Technical Secretariat. However, the Joint Technical Secretariat shall not be held liable for any dam-ages caused by the use of this newsletter.
Please note that the Project Implementation Newsletter is only meant to support projects. On no account it shall overrule EU Regulations, the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013, the Programme Manual or any other statutory provision which is determining the implementa-tion of the projects.
Disclaimer
Would you like to learn more? Check our webpage eu.baltic.net. In the FAQ section you can find a collection of frequently asked questions and inform yourself on other Baltic Sea Region Programme projects in the project database.
We would appreciate your feed-back to the Project Implemen-tation Newsletter. Please follow the link http://eu.baltic.net/feedback_PIN.13256.html to answer a small number of questions.
More information and feedback
The Baltic Sea Programme 2007-2013 is investing in Europe’s future by fostering sustainable growth of the region.
Rostock office Phone +49 381 45484 5281Email [email protected]
For further information please go to eu.baltic.net and feel free to contact the Joint Technical Secretariat.
Riga officePhone +371 67357373
Event calendar
Date Place
Monitoring Committee Task Force meeting “Programme Strategy”
14-15 April 2011
Berlin, Germany
Financial Seminar for financial managers and first level controllers of lead partners
3-4 May 2011
Hamburg, Germany
Communication seminar 24-25 May 2011
Berlin, Germany
Monitoring Committee meeting 7-8 June 2011
Schwerin, Germany
Joint conference of Transnational Cooperation Programmes
15-16 September 2011
Katowice, Poland
Monitoring Committee meeting September 2011 Berlin, Germany
The brochure features 19 projects part-financed by the Baltic Sea Region Programme and their contribution to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The projects were ap-proved in the 3rd call.
You can order copies from Alke Voß ([email protected]).
New publication: Towards an innovative and attractive region. 19 transnational cooperation projects.
eu.baltic.net
Towards an innovative and attractive region.
19 transnational cooperation projects
… contributing to the EU Strategyfor the Baltic Sea Region
Part-financed by the European Union(European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) European Union
Investitionsbank Schleswig-HolsteinGrubenstrasse 2018055 Rostock, Germany+49 381 45484 5281+49 381 45484 [email protected]
PhoneFax
State Regional Development AgencyAusekļa iela 14-6Riga, LV-1010, Latvia +371 6 735 7368+371 6 735 7372 [email protected]
PhoneFax
Joint Technical Secretariat Rostock/Riga
