LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND REPORTING & MONITORING PROCEDURES Lead Partner Seminar Madrid, 20 October 2008 Elena Ferrario & Silke Brocks Project Officers

2 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Reporting and monitoring procedures SUMMARY 1.Main features of the procedures 2.Monitoring activities

3 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October Main features of the procedures Reporting and monitoring procedures

4 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MAIN FEATURES Monitoring based on: Application Form Reporting and monitoring documents: - Progress Report - Final Report - Request for changes forms Reporting and monitoring procedures

5 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Reporting and monitoring procedures MAIN FEATURES Standard procedure: - JTS sends a pre-filled Excel file by to Lead Partner. Lead Partner returns the filled-in forms at given deadline by and by post. - Each project has two contact persons within the JTS (one Project Officer and one Finance Officer) which should be recipient of all communication.

6 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Reporting and monitoring procedures Reporting timing The Progress Report:  has to be submitted for the first time: - on 1 April 2009 (at the latest) covering the reporting period from 19 September 2008 to 31 December 2008  has to be submitted every six-months to the JTS - on 1 October (at the latest) covering the reporting period from January to June - on 1 April (at the latest) covering the reporting period from July to December MAIN FEATURES

7 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Reporting and monitoring procedures Reporting Timing  The Final Report has to be submitted within two months after the end date of the operation.  The Request for changes has to be submitted electronically within the deadline set by the JTS. MAIN FEATURES Timing for ERDF reimbursement  Depends on the quality of the Progress Reports (i.e. number of clarification requests)  From the JTS approval, payment should be executed within one month

8 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Timeframe for reporting + monitoring (example) Submission of PR by LP to JTS (confirmed by LP controller) 31/12 End of reporting period 01/04 15/02 Submission of PP input to PR to LP (incl. PP controller’s confirmation) 01/05 Feedback on PR by JTS to LP, clarification request 22/05 Approval of PR + clarificati on by JTS 22/06 Payment by Certifying Authority ~ 4 weeks Reporting and monitoring procedures

9 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008  Only in exceptional cases (e.g. partner or budget’s changes)  Request for changes forms includes: - an ‘Explanation’ form Information on the nature of the change and its justification - an Application Form for changes Specific version of the Application Form facilitating the monitoring of changes  Approval process: Mandate of the JTS/ MA from the Monitoring Committee to approve a certain number of changes e.g. withdrawal or replacement of up to 2 partners in a project Reporting and monitoring procedures MAIN FEATURES Request for changes

10 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October Monitoring activities Reporting and monitoring procedures

11 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MONITORING ACTIVITIES Progress Report (PR) structure Two main parts: 1.General information on the project’s implementation - Summary of the activities & summary of the results - Partners’ involvement - Problems encountered / solutions found 2.Detailed reporting per Component including possible deviations This second part directly refers to the information provided in the Application Form (work plan and indicators) Reporting and monitoring procedures

12 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MONITORING ACTIVITIES Points of attention for filling in the PR  To ensure that the report is self explanatory: annexes are for illustration only  To ensure that the report is understandable - even when the theme tackled is quite specialised, non specialists should be able to understand (‘capitalisation’ programme) - role of the LP to ‘digest’ and summarise information coming from the whole partnership  To pay a particular attention to the indicators (in IIIC, 80% of the clarification requests for the activities were related to indicators) Reporting and monitoring procedures

13 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MONITORING ACTIVITIES Points of attention for filling in the PR  To be as precise as possible e.g. activities should always be described in detail with dates, location, content, participants, etc.  To provide ‘qualitative’ information Monitoring of outputs is important but not sufficient. Content related information is also crucial for capitalisation. Reporting and monitoring procedures

14 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Core information to demonstrate the programme’s success  Figures reported should be realistic (better to be over cautious than over ambitious)  Each single indicator should be precisely justified  Meaning of each indicator should be carefully checked (Annex 3 of the Programme Manual) Points of attention concerning the indicators Reporting and monitoring procedures

15 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MONITORING ACTIVITIES Points of attention concerning the indicators Examples of possible confusion  In principle, N° of interregional events organised to exchange experience does not include the Steering Group meetings  N° of participants in these events (output) ≠ N° of staff members with increased capacity (result)  N° of practices successfully transferred ≠ N° of regional/local policies improved Reporting and monitoring procedures

16 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Their description should include:  Information on the deviation itself  a justification  a clarification on its consequence on the project’s implementation (e.g. on finances)  the solution proposed to face this deviation and avoid similar issues in the future Reporting and monitoring procedures Points of attention concerning the deviations

17 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 MONITORING ACTIVITIES Final advice TTo be proactive: do not wait for the Progress Report to inform the JTS on important issues Reporting and monitoring procedures

18 LP Seminar – Madrid – 20 October 2008 Thank you for your attention!