Article 10 Documents formalising grants when the Responsible Authority acts as awarding body

United Kingdom

In cases where the Responsible Authority acts as awarding body, it shall lay down project management procedures which require, at least to:

(a)

sign grant agreements with beneficiaries and

(b)

monitor the grant agreements, including any amendments thereto, by administrative means such as exchanges of correspondence or written reports.

The grant agreement shall include or indicate the following:

(a)

maximum amount of Union contribution;

(b)

maximum percentage of Union contribution in accordance with the relevant Specific Regulation;

(c)

detailed description and timetable of the project;

(d)

if applicable, any major task that the beneficiary intends to subcontract to third parties, together with the related costs;

(e)

agreed forward budget and financing plan for the project, including expenditure and income, in accordance with the eligibility rules established;

(f)

method for calculating the amount of Union contribution upon the project's closure;

(g)

timetable and implementing provisions of the agreement, including provisions on reporting obligations, amendments to the agreement and termination of the agreement;

(h)

operational objectives of the project, including quantified objectives and the indicators to be reported on;

(i)

provision requiring the beneficiary to collect, in a timely manner, the requisite data for the common indicators set out in the Specific Regulation, and any programme-specific indicators, and to report these data at least once a year;

(j)

definition of the eligible costs, including, where applicable, a description of the methodology for determining scale-of-unit costs, lump sums and flat-rate financing;

(k)

bookkeeping requirements and conditions relating to payment of the grant;

(l)

conditions relating to the audit trail;

(m)

provisions relating to data protection and

(n)

provisions relating to publicity.

As a general rule, the grant agreement shall be signed before any of the project activities charged to the national programme begin.

The grant agreement shall expressly stipulate that the Commission, or its representatives, and the Court of Auditors exercise powers of audit over all grant beneficiaries, contractors and sub-contractors who receive Union funding under the national programme, and will do so on the basis of documentary and on-the-spot controls.