site.btaMinister Briefs Stakeholders aboutOperational Programme Environment

Minister
Briefs Stakeholders about
Operational Programme Environment


Sofia, October 3 (BTA) - Environment Minister Svetlana Zhekova
on Friday made a presentation about the current state of
Operational Programme Environment and the adopted financial
correction at a working meeting at the Council of Ministers, her
Ministry said.

Zhekova said that dialogue with the European Commission and the
beneficiaries had been resumed through political actions, and
that the verification process had been stepped up.

On September 17, the government accepted a financial correction
of 152,916,261 leva under Operational Programme Environment
2007-2013 as proposed by the European Commission services in
connection with the suspended payments under the Programme and
the additional measures required by the Commission for an
improvement of the management and control systems. The
adjustment represents 9.5 per cent of the costs of the contracts
with contractors included in a set of 239 contracts that were
checked.

Speaking at Friday's meeting with managing and control
authorities, beneficiaries, representatives of the
municipalities, employers and business organizations, Zhekova
said: "About 300 million leva in public money have been paid out
under verified payment requests since August, so that work on
the beneficiaries' projects has resumed. Payment request
certificates are being prepared for the European Commission, the
first of which has been presented to the national Audit and
Certifying Authorities."

The certificate is to prove that the management and control
systems have been improved so that the European Commission could
resume payments by the end of October.

***

On Thursday working groups presented a mechanism for fair
financial corrections in cases of breaches under operational
programmes, the government information service said.

A month after Deputy Prime Minister Iliyana Tsanova committed to
propose measures for better coordinated work with the EU funds
and reduced financial risks in EU fund management, the working
groups set up on her initiative reported their activity.

The first working group reviewed the effect of the
implementation of a methodology for determining the amount of
financial corrections effective as of June 24. The group
stressed that a clear approach was needed to identify cases when
the financial correction should not be for the beneficiary's
account, and suggested objective criteria for offsetting the
correction. The group drafted amendments to the methodology,
laying down the main principles for identifying such cases.

The second working group focused on ways to minimize errors in
public procurement. The group's proposals include: standardizing
of documents for public procurement tenders, exchange and
standardization of the practices and documents of the managing
and control authorities, and ex-ante control for low-priced
public procurement contracts on a random basis.

The third group, which is drafting a bill on EU funds
management, suggested the main principles which should
strengthen coordination at the level of management and control.
VI/DD