Transcript Slide 1

LIFE NAT
Kick off & platform meeting
LATVIA 2006
Aneta Gajda, Financial Desks
EC DG ENV – LIFE Unit
Common Provisions (CP)
Financial Forms
General hints for financial reporting
Standard Audit Report
COMMON PROVISIONS (CP)
SHORT OVERVIEW
 CP - a binding document New from 2005 (before – SAP)
 CP - determines beneficiary’s and partner’s
rights and obligations for the duration of the
project
(+ 5 years after)
CP define: Project actors (1)
 Beneficiary (Art 4):
 Solely legally and financially responsible and receives the EUcontribution
 Not allowed to act as sub-contractor or supplier to other partners
 Single point of contact for the Commission
 Notify a Copy of any agreements Beneficiary-partners (Art 4.7 )
 Partner (s) (Art 5):
 Contributes to one or several of the tasks and to the costs incurred
 Not allowed to act as sub-contractor to the beneficiary or other partners
 No direct reporting to the Commission
 Art 4.6 & 5.3 Analytical accounting (cost centre accounting) New from 2005
CP define: Project actors (2)
 Co-financer (s) (Art 7):
 Contributes with financial resources to the project
 Does not benefit from the Community contribution
 Is not required to be directly involved in the project
 Subcontractor (s) (Art 6):
 Provides external services + specific tasks of a fixed duration
 Shall not be a partner
 Clear reference to the LIFE-project shall be included in the
invoices/order form
 Art 6.4 : Public tenders obligatory for public beneficiary/partner
Competitive tenders for private beneficiary/partners New from 2005
CP Define: Mechanism of LIFE
financial support (Art 20)
 The Grant Agreement foresees a maximum amount
of contribution and a maximum percentage of
funding to the eligible costs
 The final amount of the contribution is determined by
applying the percentage defined in the contract to
the eligible cost incurred but with the limit of
maximum amount as specified in the contract
CP define: Eligible costs
(Art 21.1 -21.12)
 Provided for in the provisional budget/ Directly necessary for the project
 Incurred during the lifetime of the project:
- Legal obligation to pay (the cost) has been contracted after the project
start and before the end date
- Execution of corresponding action starts after the project start and is
completed before the end date
- Full payment before submission of final reports
Exception:
Costs for independent audit can be executed after project end date – but
must be terminated, invoiced and fully paid before submission of final report,
and auditor is given the assignment before the project ends
CP define: Ineligible costs (Art 22)
Some examples:




Exchange rate losses
Debtors interest/interest on borrowed capital
Services in kind (e.g. voluntary work)
Licence or patent fees related to the protection of
intellectual property right
CP define: Payments (Art 23)
 The First pre-financing payment (40%)
 The Second pre-financing payment (30%)
 at least 150% of the first pre-financing used
New from 2005 (other conditions for the projects of 2004 and earlier)
 The Balance  final payment
FINANCIAL FORMS
Where to find the model of financial forms:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/toolbox/fi
nancial_sheet.htm
Statement of expenditure
To be delivered:
 Project consolidated statement of
expenditure, completed and signed by beneficiary
 Participant statement of expenditure, completed
and signed by each participant
Personnel costs (Art 21.2) (1)
 Relate to costs of employees –
not to costs of consultants
etc. (external assistance)
 Service contracts with individuals –
obligatory conditions:
work at beneficiary’s/partner’s premises, under his supervision and
complies with the relevant national legislation (New from 2005)
 Costs of civil servants/public employees
-- only if work not standard activity
-- for staff already working to be covered by the own contribution (New
from 2005)
 Actual (annual) gross salary or wages
plus obligatory
social charges, borne by the employer and not included in the salary,
e.g. contributions to pension, sickness and unemployment schemes
Personnel costs (Art 21.2) (2)
 Actual time devoted to the project:
 to be registered by means of time sheets
 which should be established timely,
 signed by the staff member
 and certified by the responsible project manager
 Monitoring of personnel
monthly time-sheet
costs:
Model
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/toolbox/timesheet.htm
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Travel costs (Art 21.3)
 Shall be charged in accordance with the internal rules
of the participant
 Travel outside EU and not already envisaged in the
proposal - Require prior approval of the Commission
 Should in general relate to persons accounted for
under “personnel costs” (travel costs of consultants
should be part of their service contract/fees)
External assistance costs
(Art 21.4)
 External assistance costs may not represent more than 35% of
the total eligible costs unless explicitly foreseen in the project
 Relate to the purchase of services, not of goods
 ATTENTION: such costs must be directly and exclusively
attributed to the LIFE project
 NOT: costs of independent audit – explicitly attributed to “other
costs”
 NOT: costs related to leasing/purchase of durable goods or
consumables (attribute to those cost categories)
Durable goods (Art 21.5 to Art 21.7)
 Relate to expenditure on purchase, manufacture or lease of
equipment/infrastructure
(placed on the inventory of durable goods, treated as capital
expenditure, purchased or leased at normal market costs)
 Purchased within project duration BUT not at the last days of
the project duration
 Durable goods: Depreciation of expenditure on durable goods –
beneficiary/partners apply own rules
BUT ceilings:
 infrastructure 25%,
 equipment 50%
 prototypes 100%
Durable goods (Art 21.7)
 For LIFE-Nature projects, the cost incurred for durable goods
by public authorities or non-governmental/non-profit
organisations intrinsically connected with implementation of
the project, explicitly envisaged and used to a significant
degree within its duration shall be considered eligible in full.
Such eligibility shall be subject to the beneficiary and
partners undertaking to continue to assign these goods
definitively to nature conservation activities beyond the end
of the project co-financed under LIFE-Nature.
Consumable material (Art 21.10)
 Relate to the purchase, manufacture, repair or use of
any material, goods or equipment which:
- are not on the inventory of durable goods,
- are not treated as capital expenditure,
- are specifically related to implementation of the
project.
General consumables/supplies will be charged to the
“overheads” cost category.
Other costs (Art 21.11)
 Relate to costs not falling within another defined
cost category
 Examples:
costs for bank guarantee (covering the project
period + 6 months), costs of independent audit
 Other examples:
bank fees for money transfers, inscription fees
Overheads (Art 21.12)
 indirect costs – not include costs assigned to
another budget heading; needed to employ/ manage/
accommodate/ support personnel working on the
project
 flat rate funding of 7% of the total amount of eligible
direct costs New from 2005
GENERAL HINTS
FOR
FINANCIAL REPORTING
 Study carefully the Common Provisions (CP) and
« re-read » them whenever a problem of
administrative-financial nature occurs
 Distribute the CP to all project partners and make
sure that CP are applied by them
 Oblige your partners to forward their project
accounting data to you regularly.
 Keep the project accounting up-to-date, including regular update
of the financial forms
 Introduce all data requested, i.e. complete all “cells” of the
financial forms, or explain why they remain “empty”
 Describe with sufficient detail the types of purchased
services/goods and their link with the work programme or action
 Keep all appropriate supporting documentation for all expenditure
and income – including copies of the partners’ supporting
documentation
Supporting documentation - Examples: e.g. purchase orders, invoices,
payment proofs, public tendering documents
for personnel: monthly salary slips, presence/time sheets, calculation
of social charges if not included in salary
 VAT:
For VAT charges to be considered eligible the beneficiary must
provide a declaration from the relevant national authorities that it
and/or its partners must pay and may not recover the VAT for the
assets and services required for the project.
 Currency of the reports:
only the Euro (€), Art. 25.4 Payments made in different currencies:
use the exchange rate applied by the European Central Bank on the
first day of the month in which the financial report is presented to the
Commission
Where to find:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/inforeuro/index.cfm
INDEPENDENT AUDIT
New from 2005
 Maximum amount of grant ≥ € 500.000
 pre-financing (s) > € 750.000
 Final payment request > € 150.000
External/Independent
Auditor’s Report
• Find a model of the standard audit report at:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/toolbox/standardaudit.htm
Thank you for your attention !