ESTIMATION of THE "POAT" MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY FOR 2012: 25-30% absorption rate, for the funds intended for the Technical Assistance

The estimated absorption rate for this year, for the funds attracted through the Technical Assistance Operational Program (POAT) is about 25-30%, according to Livia Chiriţă, the head of the Agency for the Oversight of the POAT: "Considering the status of the payments made, as well as the ongoing projects, and the rate of implementation of the POAT, we expect an absorption rate between 25 and 30% by the end of the year".

According to her, as a complement to the horizontal measures taken by the Ministry of European Affairs in order to accelerate the absorption of the structural instruments, at the level of the POAT, the emphasis in the near future will be on three directions. One of them will be to support the beneficiaries of the projects directly, especially for the priority projects, by creating task forces financed through the POAT, which will support both the Management Authorities and the beneficiaries in identifying the main deadlocks and in remedying them by taking the appropriate emergency measures to accelerate the implementation of the projects. Another avenues is the financing of projects which will be conducted with the help of the experts of "reputable international financial institutions", in order to solve the various horizontal aspects intended to speed up the absorption of the structural elements. Also, the list of the beneficiaries of the POAT will be extended to finance projects which would improve the implementation of all the operational programs.

There is presently no risk of the payments through the POAT being suspended, Mrs. Chiriţă assured us: "All the audit reports completed so far have concluded that the management and control system of the program works adequately, and the improvements which are recommended do not lead to the suspension of the payments".

Also, there is no risk of disengagement (automatic loss of the allocated funds) for the POAT, at the end of 2012, he said: "Considering the previously mentioned measures, we consider that there is no risk of losing the funds of the POAT".

• 102 projects - submitted for technical assistance

On April 30th, 2012, a number of 102 projects were on record at the POAT, worth approximately 348.88 million lei, which represents approximately 47% of the allocation. Out of those, 86 projects were approved, worth 302 million Euros, which represents 40.84% of the allocated funds.

The payments to the beneficiaries have been made in a proportion of 14.43% of the POAT. They include both effective reimbursements, of 101.67 million Euros, as well as pre-financing to the beneficiaries of 5 million lei.

Some of the most important projects which were financed or are in the process of implementation using financing from the POAT include the training of the beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries on the area of implementation of the projects financed through Structural instruments; the evaluations for the 2009-2010 period through which the evaluation of the CSNR and the POAT was made; the support for the functioning of the Authority for the Coordination of Structural Instruments, including of the Management Authority for the Technical Assistance Operational Program; the development of an efficient and professional community of users of the SMIS-CSNR; the development of instruments and planning for strategic territorial for supporting the post-2013 scheduling period; the Technical Assistance facility; the development of the ability to conduct cost-benefits analysis; a series of projects which support the operation of the 7 Growth Poles (Iaşi, Constanţa, Braşov, Cluj-Napoca, Ploieşti, Craiova, Timişoara).

• Chiriţă: No irregularities were uncovered within the POAT

The main factors which have made the implementation of the POAT difficult are also the main problems which the beneficiaries of the POAT have been faced with: the limited ability of the main (public) beneficiaries when it comes to the drafting of the contracts for the public procurement of technical assistance, both in terms of specific knowledge, as well as of the low number of employees and the complicated public procurement procedures on a national level.

From the point of view of the Management Authority, the low number of beneficiaries of the POAT has generated a smaller number of projects and, implicitly of payments.

Mrs. Chiriţă said that so far, no illegalities have been uncovered in the Technical Assistance Program.