Area: Javna uprava
Competent authority: MDDSZ, SVRK
EZU URL: .nan
Initiative ID: 1074
Initiative accepted and completed: '2020-11-02'
Initiative classified in EZU: .nan
Initiative forwarded in response: '2020-10-20'
Initiative published: '2020-10-20'
Initiative submitted: '2020-10-19'
Response from the competent authority: "Reply from the Ministry of Labour, Family,\
  \ Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities:The following essential starting points\
  \ for the co-financing of operations in the field of the 2014-2020 ENPI OP are related\
  \ to the initiative under consideration:\r\n- Compliance with all European and national\
  \ rules on co-financing of operations and payments from the State budget;\r\n- the\
  \ contractual relationship is governed by European and Slovenian public finance\
  \ regulations and is subject to the control of European and Slovenian institutions\
  \ and bodies which identify irregularities in the use of the funds allocated;\r\n\
  - all activities carried out are reimbursed with public funds for costs actually\
  \ incurred in the previous period and already paid, as this constitutes a condition\
  \ for their eligibility;\r\n- applicants who are granted funds for the purpose of\
  \ carrying out an operation by decision of the person responsible for the operation\
  \ shall, at the time of submitting their application for public funding, guarantee\
  \ by a declaration that they have the capacity to pre-finance it;\r\n- the method\
  \ of implementation and co-financing of the operation is determined by the co-financing\
  \ contract and the regulations and documents referred to in the contract, which\
  \ are not only instructions from the MoLSA in its role as intermediate body, but\
  \ also from other bodies involved in the implementation of the 2014-2020 ENPI OP\
  \ (such as, e.g. For the subject matter, also the Public Finance Act, the annual\
  \ laws on the implementation of the budget of the Republic of Slovenia, the Rules\
  \ on the procedures for the implementation of the budget of the Republic of Slovenia\
  \ and all information systems and instructions for their use.Taking all of the above\
  \ into account, the beneficiaries of public funds are allowed, under the above legal\
  \ bases and subject to the conditions laid down by the rules, to make advance payments\
  \ which constitute a mere exception to the general rule referred to in the third\
  \ indent of the previous paragraph and which are provided for by national legislation\
  \ for payments from the State budget, but not by European rules for the purpose\
  \ of drawing on EU funds. For these reasons, even on the basis of an advance payment,\
  \ as allowed in individual cases by the MoLSA, reimbursement of EU funds cannot\
  \ yet be claimed, but can be made on the basis of payment claims, which are to be\
  \ offset against the advance payment within 180 days of the advance payment at the\
  \ latest. This implies that the State budget is not replenished until the advance\
  \ payment is closed.An important principle in the area of public spending is the\
  \ economic management of public funds, which obliges all those who decide on the\
  \ disbursement of public funds to check that the amount of funds requested is also\
  \ justified. This means, in the case of advances, that:\r\n- verify the conditions\
  \ of eligibility of the advance and specify this in the co-financing contract;\r\
  \n- by means of an application from the recipient of the advance payment, obtain\
  \ all information on the justification of the advance payment proposal and, in the\
  \ event of the necessary approval by the Ministry of Finance, also all the required\
  \ supporting documents on the fulfilment of the prescribed conditions and the justification\
  \ of the proposed amount of the advance payment (as follows from Articles 33 and\
  \ 34 of the current Law on the Execution of the Budget of the Republic of Slovenia).With\
  \ regard to this specific initiative, we would like to provide the following replies:\r\
  \n- In the instructions of the MoFEDD, Chapter 5.1 Advance payment is clearly divided\
  \ into three sections, the second of which determines the way in which the application,\
  \ i.e. the application for advance payment, is to be submitted and processed until\
  \ the decision/consensus of the MoFEDD to approve the proposal, as it is justified\
  \ both in terms of content and the volume of funds; there is no deadline in this\
  \ part, as it is our experience that individual beneficiaries prepare their applications\
  \ in very different ways and need to be supplemented in order to ensure that they\
  \ provide all the necessary information for the processing and confirmation of eligibility,\
  \ as stated;\r\n- the third part of this part of the guidance provides for the preparation\
  \ of the claim in the OU information system (eMA) after the application has been\
  \ validated, its submission and its processing until payment; in this part the deadlines\
  \ are clearly defined, i.e. the examination and validation or rejection of the claim\
  \ within 5 days of receipt of the claim submitted in the OU information system and\
  \ the payment within 15 days of receipt of the claim, i.e. in both references the\
  \ date of receipt of the claim is considered to be the starting date of the deadline;\
  \ in concrete terms, this means that if the claim is complete, payment can be made\
  \ within a time limit of less than 15 days, but if corrections are needed, the claim\
  \ is rejected and the time limit is extended to 15 days; the receipt of the claim\
  \ by the MoLSA is defined as the date recorded in the transmission via the UJP,\
  \ i.e. the date on which the UJP transmits the claim to the MoLSA;\r\n- with regard\
  \ to the submission of payment requests before the approval of the advance payment\
  \ request, we coordinate with the beneficiary during the phase of coordination of\
  \ the advance payment request and if we agree that the beneficiary can submit payment\
  \ requests regardless of the approval of the advance payment request application\
  \ and its submission and receipt at the MoLSA, we only warn the beneficiary, that\
  \ if the submitted payment claim is rejected after the submission of the advance\
  \ payment claim, it will be included in the advance payment settlement, which means\
  \ that the period for which the advance payment is made will be changed, because\
  \ the period of the rejected payment claim will be included and only the advance\
  \ payment already received, which did not take into account the costs of this claim,\
  \ will be paid; in practice, beneficiaries agree to accept as correct for payment\
  \ a payment claim that has already been submitted and the beneficiary can then immediately\
  \ submit an application for an advance payment that has already been reconciled;\r\
  \n- in cases of multiple advances, the so-called 'advance payment'. In the case\
  \ of multiple advances, which is also an exception to the baseline rules, the application\
  \ is coordinated with the beneficiary by e-mail and also validated, so that simplification\
  \ is already ensured in this part; if the submission of an advance payment request\
  \ were to start from the OU IT system (i.e. without prior coordination with the\
  \ beneficiary), the required justifications for the advance payment request proposal\
  \ would also have to be provided, as already mentioned in the first indent of this\
  \ section, which most often leads to the completion of an incomplete application\
  \ by the beneficiary and the rejection of the request.It follows from the above\
  \ that the management and economic handling of public funds in the field of European\
  \ policies and of funds allocated to individual operations/projects is very complex\
  \ and therefore challenging, both in terms of the legal bases and system requirements\
  \ and information systems, and in the part of the individual procedures for payments\
  \ from the State budget, which in these cases provides the funds before the EU part\
  \ of the funds paid is drawn down/reimbursed. The MoLSA recognises that for the\
  \ individual recipient this means knowing all the details for the preparation of\
  \ the claims and assists them in this by providing specific and individual expert\
  \ assistance and guidance derived from the statutory guidance for all cases."
Text file: 1074.txt
Title: Initiative to modify the submission of payment requests for operations co-financed
  by the ENP - MDDSZ
URL: https://www.stopbirokraciji.gov.si/pobuda/?st=1074
