What is this course about? 
The seminar will cover all the essentials of Financial Planning and Management, Financial Control and Audit for Operational Programmes in the 2014-2020 period.

The first part of the seminar is dedicated to programme finance and the new accounting year, looking at what goes into the annual accounts and the calculation of the annual balance (an exercise on the annual balance will follow in day 2). It also considers the process of interim payments in detail. This is followed by an in-depth examination of the new eligibility of expenditure rules and an analysis of the particular financial management challenges facing Managing Authorities, seen from a Member State point of view. This includes a review of good practice for financial planning and addressing n+3, as well as encouraging the use of Simplified Cost Options. Day 1 is concluded with an examination of Financial Control and Audit, distinguishing between them, presented by a leading Member State practitioner.

Day 2 starts by continuing the theme of audit, looking in detail at the audit of systems and the audit of operations, again from a Member State perspective, plus an examination of irregularities, corrections, and calculation of the error rate. There will then be a keynote presentation from the European Commission, who will look at one of the most problematic financial control areas for Managing Authorities, Implementation Bodies and some projects – compliance with the public procurement rules. The seminar will close by examining the new performance-related aspect of programmes – the PF and the link between finance and achievements within priorities. European Union guidance documents will be referenced throughout the seminar. We hope to share experiences from Member State authorities. The seminar will compare the new rules for 2014-2020 with the situation for the 2007-2013 period.

How will it help you?
The objectives of this seminar are two-fold:

• to bring together practitioners and experts from the European, national and sub-national level, to enable them to shareexperiences and identify cases of good practice in financial management;
• to discuss ways of implementing financial management, control and audit rules, such as eligibility of expenditure, financialcontrols, audit practices.

Who will benefit most?
This seminar is intended for practitioners from national and sub-national authorities and from other public bodies of the EU Member States (and associated countries) working with ESI Funds. The seminar is also open to economic and social partners working with the Structural and Investment Funds, such as universities, NGOs, employers’ associations, consultants.
 

The detailed programme of this seminar will be available soon.