Northern Periphery Programme Advice to Lead partners for final reports Lead Partner Seminar 18th September 2013 Scandic Hotel, Skellefteå, Sweden Christopher Parker and Stefan Nyström

Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active" parters and lead partners - "Be pro- active" vice to partners and lead partners - "Be pro-active"  Plan ahead knowing that delays are expected from FLC 's and other members of the partnership consortium  Start working on final report before the project is due to be completed  Make sure all public match funding is accounted for both cash and In- kind  Submit budget changes to Desk officer before processing claim for each partner and whole project before END DATE ( i.e. 2 month before)

Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active" parters and lead partners - "Be pro- active" vice to partners and lead partners - "Be pro-active"  ONLY complete Final reports WILL BE processed, meaning.....ALL components of the Final Reporting Package with supporting documents must be received and correct. Ensure for example:-  that Fact sheets in the Final Content are for products and services and not activities.  that Final project claim is correct.  that promotional material has been sent  that project website is updated  Programme Secretariat will conduct an Admissibility check to determine if all components of the Final Reporting Package have been submitted, if missing…… The Final Reporting Package will not be processed until complete.

Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active" To avoid delays  Get Financial claims to partner FLC's in good time to avoid delays  Ensure - communications indicators are accumulative and not from the project's last progress report  Ensure - Indicators in Administrative and Final content reports match  Ensure - Final content report and Product and Service facts contain correct contact details  Ensure - Public match funding has been received

Lead Partner Principle  Role Lead Partner:  Acting as link between the project partners and the programme  Submitting the project progress reports and now your final report  Overall responsibility for project coordination  Formal beneficiary of ERDF and ERDF equivalent funding  Lead Partner has the responsibility to distribute the funding received from the NPP among the project partnership in accordance with the spending by the partners. The complete Lead Partner responsibilities are stipulated in Regulation: (EC) 1080/2006, Art 20 Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active"

Lead Partner Principle  Role Lead Partner:  Be the policeman of the project, ensure that all certified costs can be connected to eligible/approved project activities (Letter distributed) Northern Periphery Programme recommends that all partner Certificates of Expenditures (CoEs) to the LP are supported by a partner activity report, clearly outlining the individual partner activities, and a transaction list to demonstrate which costs are related to what activities. AND It is vital that the Lead Partner can extract the individual partner activities from the overall Work Package activity plan, potentially outline individual partner activities in the partnership agreement. Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active"

 1. Admissibility check List of priority 1 or 3 Complementary information from LP ? List of priority 3 – 2  2. Review of final claim Costs vs budget Eligible and sufficient funding Complementary information from LP ? Assessment Final report (secretariat)  3. Decision of payment. Managing Authority

COMMON ERRORS  Copies of Certificate of Expenditure and First Level Control checklists  Missing Blue-ink signatures, First Level Control and Lead Partner Certificate of Expenditure missing pages  Whole or part of document  Missing First Level Control checklist  Whole or part of document  Old template for the Certificate of Expenditure  Template from previous programme period  Not the latest version, i.e. missing budget lines 10 and/or 11  Statement of Expenditure instead of Certificate of Expenditure Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active"

Desk check errors  Wrong expense period on Payment claim  In relation to decision  In relation to Certificate of Expenditures  Wrong bank information, IBAN / BIC  In relation to application/decision  In relation to latest supplied information  Claim signed by person not authorized to sign for the organisation  In relation to enclosure 2 of decision  In relation to latest supplied information  Faulty Summary of CoE:s page  Partner listed on wrong funding source compared to the decision, mostly of the 20% flexibility area  Expenditure amounts entered in Summary of CoE:s not corresponding with Partner CoE.  Faulty 2nd page of project claim due to mistakes in Summary of CoE:s page  Match funding amounts entered in Summary of CoE:s not corresponding with Partner CoE:s  Costs certified in budget lines that has nothing budgeted for. Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active"

Desk check errors  Invalid Certificate of Expenditure  First Level Controller not approved by National Controller  Wrong expense period, expenses approved beyond the claim period  Deductions missing from page 3 of CoE  Wrong expenditure and match funding  Amounts in current CoE versus previous CoE, doesn’t correspond.  Insufficient First Level Control Check list  All answers not ticked  Answers on questions 8-12 “Not checked” or “Not applicable”, without specifying reason why. Advice to partners and lead partners – "Be pro-active"

 REMEMBER – All partners are counting on you meeting your deadline and avoiding finanical complexities.

Thank You for Listening!