Job Description First Level Control Officer, IPA ADRIATIC CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROGRAMME
Job description
Position: First Level Control (FLC) Officer for IPA Adriatic Cross-border Cooperation Programme
Number of positions: 2
Location: Belgrade, Ministry of Finance, Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded
Programmes – CFCU, Division for first level control of projects financed under IPA cross-border and
transnational cooperation component
A
Background
The Republic of Serbia (RS) participates in eight EU funded Cross Border Cooperation (CBC)/Transnational
Programmes.1 Depending on the programme, contracting and payment duties related to RS project partners
are performed either by a) institutions in EU Member States (programmes with Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania,
the Adriatic and South East Europe) or by b) bodies within RS (programmes with Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia and Montenegro). The two different management modes are respectively termed “shared”
management and “centralised”/“decentralised” management.
The IPA Adriatic Cross-border Cooperation Programme is the result of joint programming work carried out
by the eight participating countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro,
Serbia and Slovenia) and is focused on cooperation to promote sustainable development in the Adriatic
area2.
The Programme is managed under the shared management mode and has established authorities and joint
management structures in accordance with the principle of separation of functions. These include a single
Managing Authority, Certifying Authority and Audit Authority as well as the Joint Monitoring Committee, the
Joint Technical Secretariat and designated National Authorities in each participating country. In Serbia,
European Integration Office is National Authority for IPA Adriatic CBC Programme.
According to Article 114 of Regulation (EC) No 718/2007 participating countries are responsible for the
management and control of cross-border programmes in particular through the following measures: a)
ensuring that management and control systems for cross-border programmes are set up in accordance with
Articles 101 and 105 and function effectively; b) preventing, detecting and correcting irregularities and
recovering amounts unduly paid together with interest on late payments where appropriate.
Also, in line with Article 108 of the Regulation (EC) No 718/2007, each participating country has set up a
control system making it possible to verify the delivery of the products and services co-financed, the
soundness of the expenditure declared for operations or parts of operations implemented on its territory,
and the compliance of such expenditure and of related operations, or parts of those operations, with
1
For more details see http://www.evropa.gov.rs/Evropa/PublicSite/index.aspx
2 For more details see http://www.adriaticipacbc.org/
1
This project is co-funded by the European Union,
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Job Description First Level Control Officer, IPA ADRIATIC CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROGRAMME
Community, when relevant, and its national rules. Each participating country shall ensure that the
expenditure can be validated by the controllers within a period of three months from the date of its
submission by the lead beneficiary to the controllers.
Serbia has set up a centralized control system. The control is carried out by the Division for First Level
Control Activities of Projects Financed under IPA Component Cross-Border Cooperation within the
Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded Projects (CFCU), Ministry of Finance. The Division
is fully independent from the activities and finances of the cross-border projects. Serbia shall designate the
controllers responsible for verifying the legality and regularity of the expenditure declared by each final
beneficiary participating in the operations funded under the IPA Adriatic CBC Programme. First Level
Control is the first set of checks performed on EU funds by the countries or institutions managing a
particular programme. FLC is comprehensive and consists of 100% desk based check of expenditure
incurred and paid by project partners before they are reimbursed from EU sources, and on the spot checks.
In order to ensure effective management, implementation, monitoring, control and evaluation of the
Programme, the Technical Assistance (TA) Component supports the First Level Control structures in
participating countries.
B
Objective
Costs incurred and paid for in the context of projects receiving EU funds from IPA Adriatic CBC Programme
have to be in line with the over-arching EU and national legislation, with the programme rules and the
subsidy contracts concluded. If expenditure paid out by a project partner breaches any provision contained
in relevant documentation, it is ineligible, and the amounts concerned are either deducted from the funds
transferred to a project partner from EU sources or recovered from it. In addition, if it is not possible to
recover funds associated with ineligible expenditure paid out by an RS project partner, the relevant amount
will have to be covered from the RS state budget. As FLC Officer for IPA Adriatic CBC Programme, the
expert’s objective is twofold: 1) To check whether expenditures incurred and paid out by RS project partners
are eligible; 2) to ensure that any transgressions of the relevant procurement procedures by RS project
partners are identified as soon as possible, and that appropriate follow-up action is taken.
C
Responsibilities and tasks
In fulfilling his/her responsibilities and tasks, the expert shall perform the activities listed below. They
concern the projects implemented under the IPA Adriatic CBC Programme. A certain amount of travel within
the RS and countries participating in the Programme can be expected.
Activities:
 Receiving RS project partners’ progress reports;
 Developing and maintaining record on RS project partners’ reports, and entering relevant
information into the Programme’s Management Information System;
 Validation of documentation;
 Communication with relevant bodies;
 Control of implementation of project activities (in the office and in the field);
 Issuing Declarations on Validation of Expenditures (DVE) for RS project partners;
 Providing relevant input for the drafting and updating of relevant rules and procedures for FLC,
including the development of templates for FLC reports to be submitted by project partners and
associated documentation;
2
This project is co-funded by the European Union,
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Job Description First Level Control Officer, IPA ADRIATIC CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROGRAMME
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D
Provision of advice to the national authority vis-à-vis their role in supporting RS project partners
with reporting and ensuring eligibility of expenditure;
Participating in relevant trainings, workshops, meetings, seminars to ensure continuous and highlevel quality of the control activities;
Any other tasks relevant to the above activities and requested by the Head of the Division Unit,
including the provision or receipt of training not indicated above
Reporting lines
The expert shall report to the Head of the Division for FLC in CFCU.
E
Professional requirements
The expert must meet the following minimum criteria:
- University degree (in the field of economics, law or social sciences);
- At least 1 year of relevant professional experience (finance, accounting, audit, control, project
management or similar);
- Knowledge of national regulations in finance and accounting, knowledge of the Instrument for PreAccession Assistance and knowledge of EU regulations related to public procurement;
- Knowledge of English language – advanced level;
- Knowledge of Microsoft office package – advanced level.
3
This project is co-funded by the European Union,
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance