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Practioners’ PerspectiveRegional / Structural Funds
Mike Shaw (Ceredigion County Council)for Welsh Local Government Association
9th December 2010
Local Government in Wales
Safe Quality environment Opportunities to Work and prosperFulfilled and healthy livesLearn and develop to fulfill potential
Important role played by European funding
Structural Funds ERDFESF
Agricultural / Rural Development FundsEAFRD
• Lots of problems• Not just audit trails• Evolving becoming more complex – error more
likely• Wide acceptance of the need for change
• EAFRD examples• Indirect costs in Structural funds
NOW
• Cohesion and rural development funds need to work • Successful delivery not failure and clawback• Genuine European added value • Transparency / verifiable / simpler• Meeting the post 2013 agenda will be more
challengingo Alignment with public investmentso Joining up with other European fundso Consistency between funds
Our Goals
The Welsh experience
UK
European Funds
WALESWelsh Assembly Government
Project LeadWAG/Local Authority
Other ‘Sponsors’/ Stake-holders
Contracted delivery organisations(NfP/Third Sector/Local Authorities)
Procurement
Issues
Long Chains:
• Funding Evidence
• Capacity
• Weakest link
• Bureaucracy
Match Funding:
Where it comes into chain
Procurement:
Advertising
Risk of ‘branding’ Loss
• Real cost methodology becoming more challenging Examples:o Demonstrating defraymento Large volumes of evidence for small sumso Staff apportionmento Disincentive to participate and take–up Leading to uncertainties and higher rates of
error
• Support for reducing administrative burden• Move toward performance based system• Retention of real cost basis• Investments taking longer to achieve• Public Private Partnerships helpful but not
always suited – more options = more complex
• Income generation v longer term sustainability
Considerations
Wider view
• Local authorities act as intermediaries for CSOs
• Alignment - leads to more procurement
• In-kind contributions vital to delivery by local authorities; not unique to CSOs and widely
used in RDP
• ‘Double ceiling’ - Appropriate at least to maintain intervention rate; State Aid, committed match funding
• Systemic error is accepted as an issue for the responsible entity
Wider view 2
•Tolerable risk of error; difficult and often a result of complexity
•Good practice in some funds needs to be transferred – for example on underwriting of match funding
•Indirect costs Not always helpful but open to misunderstandings about scope
•Operating grants – consistency with treatment of revenue by all undertakings, State Aid arising. procurement routes better?
•CSOs should have equal status with other potential tenderers and no special status.
Wider view 3
• Co-financing needs to have regard to the TFEU and respect State Aid and regional / Cohesion considerations
• Local authority experience acting as intermediary for RDP in Wales indicates high levels of audit evidence and bureaucracy for this funding
• Evidence of the need for simplification• Wide consensus to improve • But will this add to practioners’ problems in delivery?• Relatively little experience in results based approaches.• Avoid adding further difficulty to the real cost regime
Clearer route needed to set the stage for alignment of funds post 2013 and facilitate ‘joining-up’ e.g. common rules
Summary
CONTACT DETAILS
Welsh Local Government Association
+32(0)2 506 44 84
Mike Shaw mike.shaw@ceredigion.gov.uk
Ceredigion County Council
+44(0)1545 572 064
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