SAPARD Program me

1. SAPARD Programme

2. How will the SAPARD projects be financed

3. SAPARD financial aid • Grant aid: 50% of the actual investment costs (VAT excluded); • Grant aid from EU and national budget

4. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Purchase of land property; • Purchase of existing buildings; • Costs for taxes and customs duties which are subject to refund, reimbursement or compensation; • Payments in kind;

5. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Purchase of second-hand equipment; • Rental costs; • Leasing costs; • Bank taxes, costs related to surety and others;

6. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Expenditures for equipment or services which exceed the minimum costs needed for investment goal achievement in the most effective way; • Operational costs; • Expenditures for maintenance of material assets;

7. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Expenditures related to purchase of machinery and equipment, product supply and services originating from countries other than EU member states or Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

8. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Costs for supplies, services or works over 10 000 euro provided that the candidate has not signed a contract or has not abided by the bounding agreements of the contract;

9. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Project costs generating taxes for beneficiaries or participants before the completion of the project provided that the sum of these costs has not been excluded from the sum of the approved costs; • Expenditures for promotions, except for costs for promotions of public interest;

10. Which investment expenditures are not eligible to SAPARD funding? • Expenditures, not related to infrastructure, incurred by beneficiaries with more than 25% of capital shares held by a public institution;

11. When are the Claims for payment to be submitted? • After the approval of the projects, candidates sign financial aid contracts and initiate their projects; • After the completion of the project or an autonomous part of it in accordance with the contract, candidates fill and submit their Claim for payment;

12. When are the Claims for payment to be submitted? • The deadline for submission of Claims for payment is 15 days after the project completion deadline, as indicated in the financial aid contract. • The Paying agency is obliged to send a notification letter about the deadline expiry date;

13. When are the Claims for payment to be submitted? • The Claims for payment are to be submitted in one of the 6 Regional Paying agencies /RPA/ of SFA as follows: • Sofia – Sofia (city), Sofia (district), Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Pernik; • Pleven – Pleven,Lovech,Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Gabrovo;

14. Where are the Claims for payment to be submitted? • Varna – Dobrich, Varna, Silistra, Razgrad, Shumen, Targovishte; • Yambol – Yambol, Burgas, Sliven, Haskovo; • Plovdiv – Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Kardzhali , Pazardzhik , Smolyan; • Montana – Montana, Vratsa, Vidin.

15. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • Claims for payment are available at the 6 RPA of SFA; • The Claims for payment are standard forms, different for each measure; • The application forms include fields regarding personal data of the candidate, as well as fields for the requisite documents by types of investment;

16. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • The candidate indicates all actual completed investments in the list included in the Claims for payment; • The candidate applies all requisite documents listed in the application form; • The candidate indicates all applied documents in the application form;

17. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • The requisite documents are different for each of the 4 measures but as a whole they can be divided into two major groups – documents common for all candidates and specific documents by types of investment;

18. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • The candidate groups the payment documents by types of investment in accordance with the contract; • The candidate fills the Table of costs and lists all invoices, certificates and insurance policies in details by types of investment;

19. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • The duly filled, completed and signed applications are submitted personally by the candidate or by a specially authorized person at the Regional Paying Agency /RPA/ of SFA;

20. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • Within one working day and at the presence of the candidate, a RPA officer is obliged to inspect if the Claim is complete and if all requisite documents are duly attached. The Claim is subject to a secondary inspection conducted by another officer. In case of full compliance, the officer issues a unique 13-digit entry number of the application.

21. How to complete and submit the Claim for payment? • Incomplete Claims are not accepted and should be returned for corrections. • The candidate is obliged to complete the Claim, eliminating any ascertained errors within the deadline for its submission, indicated in the financial aid contract. Otherwise, the Claim will be considered withdrawn.

22. How are the Claims for payment approved? • Prior to approval of the submitted applications, the following inspections are conducted: • Inspection on compliance of the actual investment costs with the eligible investment costs, included in the contract. The inspection is conducted by two experts.

23. How are the Claims for payment approved? • On-the-spot checks before payment. The purpose of these checks is to prove that the investment corresponds to the eligible investment in the contract and the available technical equipment, buildings, animals, etc. are being used in compliance with the approved project.

24. How are the Claims for payment approved? • Depending on the result of the conducted inspections, the RPA prepares recommendation for approval or rejection of the Claim for payment and sends it to SAPARD Agency Headquarters together with the requisite documentation for further processing;

25. How are the Claims for payment approved? • Within the certain deadlines, experts from the Headquarters inspect the Claims and make Calculations of the investment expenditures due to be paid. • After the deduction of ineligible costs the final payment for authorization is calculated.

26. How are the Claims for payment approved? • The deadline for payment is 3 months after the Claim for payment has been accepted.

27. How is the financial aid paid? • After the calculation of the financial aid, a bank transfer is made to the candidate’s bank account, indicated in the documentation. • The candidate receives a notification letter from SFA about the payment of the financial aid.

28. What requirements should beneficiaries meet after completion of the investment project? • The beneficiary is obliged to utilize all purchased assets in compliance with their purpose for the project, as well as not sell or lease these assets for a period, indicated in the contract.

29. Ex-post project monitoring and control • The adherence to the conditions is controlled through on-the-spot checks for the period indicated in the contract;

30. Ex-post project monitoring and control • Competent authorities conducting the inspections: • The European Commission • European Chamber of Accounts • The Certifying Body • SF “Agriculture”

31. Common control procedures in IM Department and RPA • All employees of the SAPARD Agency have clearly defined obligations in accordance with their job characteristics and the levels of powers described in the manuals; • The work of each employee is subject to procedural inspection from another officer;

32. Common control procedures in IM Department and RPA • Each procedural action is initiated in written form; • The work of every employee is subject to supervision and control from a superior officer as well as from the officers from “Internal control” Department.

33. Common control procedures in IM Department and RPA • All internal and external documents are standardized and only originals or legalized copies are considered valid. • Clear procedures for ascertainment of irregularities and fraud are established;