Finance

The Finance and Contract/Audit section supervises the contractual and financial management of projects as from their conception, during their implementation (contract award and payments) and their closure.

The Finance and Contract/Audit section operates within financial and management rules as outlined in

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/legislation/index_en.htm

Mainly the rules consist of EC financial regulation and its implementing rules, the applicable legal bases for EC cooperation activities and EuropeAid's rules and procedures.

On project level the financial rules to be adhered to are described in the Agreement (Finance Agreement, Grant Contract, Service Contract, Supply Contract etc) and must be strictly complied with. It is therefore very important that each project fully understands all administrative and financial compliance criteria when an Agreement is signed.

Implementation modalities

In most cases, the implementation modalities are agreed with the beneficiary country through the signature of Financing Agreements :

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/financing/financing_agreement/index_en.htm

The main implementation modalities of EC cooperation projects are carried out through :

- Programme estimates :

Practical to procedures for programme estimates :

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/financing/work_programmes/index_en.htm

An important part of the Programme Estimate is the financial section, linking budgets to planned actions. The financial tables are discussed with the project and serve also as a general management tool to monitor whether implementation is proceeding as planned. The Finance and Contract/Audit section visits projects to review some of procedures and financial and contractual implementation of projects.

- Procurement Contracts (services, works, and supplies), grants and joint management with international organisations:

Practical guide to contract procedures for EC external actions :

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/index_en.htm

Frequently asked questions:

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/faq/index_en.htm

The Finance and Contract/Audit section supervises the contract award process in respect of the applicable competition rules (tenders, calls for proposals, etc).

It assists projects/local government in drafting guidelines for (de-)centralised tenders and calls for proposals and observes/chairs the evaluation process for contract award.

- Framework contracts :

General information and guidelines about the various framework contracts, information about the framework contractors per lot and standard documents to be used :

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/framework-contract/index_en.htm

- Relations with Member States, beneficiary countries, international organisations and other donors

Including arrangements for indirect centralised management (delegated cooperation/transfer agreement) with Member States

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/international_organisations/index_en.htm

- Budget support :

"how the Commission provides budget support' :