Starting April 2016, the Regional Office for Cross Border Cooperation Suceava hosts the Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS) of the Programme and assists the Joint Managing Authority (MA), the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) and the Audit Authority (AA) in carrying out their respective duties.
The JTS will assist the JMC in performing its tasks by:
- performing secretariat function for the Joint Monitoring Committee;
- organizing the JMC meetings;
- under coordination of MA, preparing and mailing of the documentation related to written procedures, information, or other consultations;
- drawing up of the minutes of the meetings, circulate them for approval to the JMC members;
- under coordination of MA, preparing Joint Monitoring Committee decisions;
The JTS will directly assist the MA in the execution of the various tasks, as described below:
- Under the MA supervision, co-ordinates project generation by organizing info-days with public sessions offered to potential applicants regarding the application procedures;
- Supports MA in organizing the calls for proposals, including the preparation of the application packages;
- Organizes the evaluation sessions, ensures the secretariat functions for evaluation committees and participates with its staff as internal assessors in evaluation of eligibility and administrative step;
- Carries out information and publicity activities related to the programme (e.g. seminars, conferences, partnership forums, contributes to updating of the programme web-site, etc.) under the supervision of the Managing Authority, and according to information and communication plans;
- Supports MA in contracting process by preparing the related documentation and performing pre-contracting visits to the selected grant beneficiaries;
- Contracts the branch office and co-ordinates its activity;
- Co-operates with organizations, institutions and networks relevant for the objectives of the Programme;
- With the support of the branch offices, organizes and co-ordinates the monitoring of the projects, including the corresponding site visits;
- Receives and carries out the operational and financial verification of the requests for payments, submitted by the beneficiaries, together with the report and a checklist of the supporting documents;
- Sends the verified documents to the MA with a notification regarding the regularity and compliance of the request for payment with the program rules;
- Introduces and validates data related to the projects in the monitoring computerized system;
- Assists the beneficiaries in implementing the projects;
- Supports AM in performing the programme evaluation by providing relevant information;
- Performs ex-post visits to the projects in order to check the sustainability of the projects, including the fulfillment of the Art 39 (3) of Commission Implementing Regulation no 897/2014.
The JTS will assist the Audit Authority or any controls by the Union (Commission, European Anti-Fraud Office, the European Court of Auditors and any external auditor authorized by these institutions and bodies) in the execution of their tasks, by supporting the organization of the audit and control missions, including the organization of the related on-site visits.
The appointed JTS branch offices shall be located in Chernivtsi, and in Odessa Oblasts in order to support the activities of interested stakeholders and to facilitate easy access to information.
The tasks of JTS branch offices will be limited to communication actions and support for MA and NA/CCP Ukraine and they will not be entrusted with tasks involving exercise of public authority.
The JTS branch offices have the following tasks:
- To carry out information and publicity activities related to the programme, under JTS coordination;
- To provide support to the MA/JTS during the evaluation process as regards the administrative and eligibility check of the applicants
- To provide support to the MA/JTS during the grant contracting process by providing information related to national legislation of Ukraine on specific issues;
- To support the JTS in the monitoring process of the projects, by organizing the site visits to the projects partners located in Ukraine;
- To support JTS in perform ex-post visits to the projects located in Ukraine in order to check the sustainability of the projects, including the fulfillment of the Art 39 (3) of Commission Implementing Regulation no 897/2014;
- To support JTS in organizing the missions in Ukraine of Audit Authority or any controls bodies (Commission, European Anti-Fraud Office, the European Court of Auditors and any external auditor authorized by these institutions and bodies);
- To support the National Authority and Control Contact Point in carrying out their tasks.