Dresdner Straße 701200 Wien

www.ama.atwww.eama.at

Administration of Investment Measures in Paying Agency of Austria

Günter Griesmayr

May, 6th 2015

K-A

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Relevant Elements of the Management and Control System

• Regulations Rural Development

• Approbation of projects (delegated bodies)

• On-the-spot control / risk analysis

• The technical service (on-the-spot controls)

• Database

• Internal and external audit

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EU Regulations

• Rural Development– Reg. (EU) No 1303/2013 (common provisions)

– Reg. (EU) No 1305/2013 (council / parliament)

– Reg. (EU) No 807/2014 (del. reg.)

• CAP– Reg. (EU) No 1306/2013 (council-reg.)

– Impl.- Reg. (EU) No 809/2014 (control)

– Del. Reg. (EU) No 907/2014 (annex)

– Impl.- Reg. No 908/2014 (accreditation Paying Agency)

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National Regulations

• Austrian RD Program

• National Ordinances – Agro-environment– Less Favored Areas– Investment in rural areas– Broadband infrastructure

• Regional Ordinances– Nature protection– Village renewal

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RD Budget Allocation in AT

Total budget for RD: 1,1 bn € p.a.

12%

50%

25%

10%

5%

2%

Axis 1

Agro-Inv (axis 2)

LFA (axis 2)

Axis 3

LEADER

Technical assistence

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The most important Investment Measures(average payments in mill. € pa )

• Investment in farm holdings: 80 mill. €– 76 %: Physical structure (barn, liquid manure,…)– Rest (each with about 3 – 5%):

• Equipment (e.g. milking machine)• Greenhouse• Mountain pasture (physical structure, processing,…)

• No support for:– Mechanizing equipment (tractors, combines,…)– Exception: special-purpose machines for joint use

• Infrastructure 30 mill. €

• Processing and marketing 12 mill. €

• Forestry measures 20 mill. €

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Reference Costs

• Provided by Federal Ministry of Agriculture

• Developed and periodical updated by a group of experts

• Based on empirical value (experts)

• Basis for costs evaluation for approving a project

• Not (yet) used as basis for payments!

• Austria intends to use as simplified cost instead of invoicing

• Field of application: construction (farm holdings, agro-tourism, biomass,…)

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Authorization and Control of Payments

Delegated bodies• 25 regional institutions (local governments)

® up to 700 employees • Separate treaty with each institution • Monitoring by Internal Audit of AMA following a 5-year-

plan• Quality check by operating department of AMA

(sampling inspection)

Benefit:• Specialized staff• Civil servants• Professionals (e.g. master-builder)• Ergo: high standard in processing of applications• Local governments: no costs for the Paying Agency

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Approval of Projects

Regional Institutions

• Receipt of Applications

• Check of Applications

• Selection process

• Data entry (database)

• Contracting procedure

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Authorization of Payments

Regional Institutions

• Receipt of payment claim

• Invoicing

• Decision

• If required: sanctions (Art. 63 Reg. No 809/2014)

• Data entry into database

• In-situ visits (effective date not determined)

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Operation / Time Flow

• Monthly payment

• Deadline for payment next month (e.g. June): 4th each month (May)

• Funds request

• Risk analysis (2 days)

• Handover of documents (2 days)

• On-the-spot control (4 weeks)

• Appraisal and data entry (1 week)

• Execution for payment (1 week)

• Accounting for payment (ca. 25th each month)

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The Technical Service

• Regional offices (AMA)

• Order by the central unit

• Information to the delegated body

• Order to regional offices (AMA) for the on-the-spot control

• Handover of documents (regional institution)

• On-the-spot control

• Return of the results and documents to the regional institution

• Assessment and data entry of the results by the granting body

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Database / IT-Management

• Database: online, managed by a central server

• Workflow system

• Number of users: up to 700

• Data entry by delegated body

• IACS-basic claims data (name, address, …)

• Administrative checks (work-flow)

• Calculation of sanction if appropriate

• Interface to risk analysis

• Interface to the accounting system (SAP)

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Current Problems

• Control and penalty rules– Applicable legislation is spread in different

regulations

– Guidance document prepared by the EC is helpful (draft version already available) – but it arrives rather late

• Control statistics– Preparation of the requested tables is very complex

– Requirements by the EC arrived rather late

– Therefore the provision of data is partial unfeasible

– Petition to the EK: Reduction to what is absolutely necessary!

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Thanks for your attention

guenter.griesmayr@ama.gv.at