Checks on projects

Our contract with the European Commission requires us to carry out a number of types of checks on projects.

Final report checks

Once we receive your final report, we aim to finalise it within 45 days. This period can be extended if we require further information or clarification from you.

When we carry out a check of your final report we will look at what you describe as your achievements in your Final Report and compare these to your plans at application stage, in order to see whether you have achieved your objectives.

The Final Report also provides a context to your costs and hence it is important that you tell us what changed from your original plan in your application. If costs are not as was planned, you must tell us why if you haven’t already agreed these changes with us.

In addition, some costs such as ‘Project costs’ and to award costs that don’t require receipts but are awarded based on achievements described in your Final Report, as is noted in the Funding Rules in the programme guide. 

Visits

We are also required to visit beneficiaries either during the course of the project (‘on-the-spot checks’) or once you have submitted your final report (‘ex post check’).

These checks can be:

• selected at random using a European Commission-designed tool
• planned to follow up previous visits to ensure that agreed actions have been implemented
• carried out on a risk basis (e.g. to new groups or to groups who make multiple applications).

Before the visit

We will write to you, at least one month before, letting you know when we wish to visit. We will also explain what type of check it is and what information and records we will need to see.

During the visit

During an on-the-spot check we aim to see the project activities first hand. If this is not possible, we may have to rely on photographs, material produced during the activities and evaluation forms instead. This will help us assess whether your actual activities are accurately reported in your final report and are what you planned to do in your application.

The visit, which will take no longer than a day, will involve us meeting up with someone who can show us the project records as well as the person who runs the project.

First time

On first-time visits we will ask for some background about your group’s legal structure, management, funding and financial policies and procedures. We will also need a copy of your health and safety, child protection and diversity policies and procedures as well as proof of up-to-date insurance cover.

After the visit

We will respond to our visit with a draft report within 30 days of the visit. You will have 30 days to respond to the report’s findings.

The report might flag up:

• areas where we feel that improvements are needed in the management of the projects
• amounts which we believe are ineligible for funding by the programme
• queries over the organisational capacity of the organisation to manage multiple projects.

If you do not respond to the draft report, then we will issue the report as final and raise a recovery order for any amounts that are potentially ineligible.

Conflicts of interest

During a visit we will be looking out for actual or implied conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are specifically mentioned in the Grant Agreement. A beneficiary is expected to report any perceived or actual conflict of interest to their programme officer as soon a they discover it. Any expenditure deemed to be subject to a conflict of interest will not be eligible for funding. A conflict of interest is defined for the purposes of Youth in Action funding as being:

• payments made to the legal representative or contact person as named in the application form, grant agreement or final report;
• payments to a company in which the legal representative or contact person has an interest in; or
• payments made to a family member of the above

If in any doubt beneficiaries should contact their programme officer for advice.

Organisational capacity

We also use our visit to assess your organisation’s capacity to manage Youth in Action funds.As the programme guide makes clear, each organisation must have the necessary ‘competencies and motivation’ to manage the project.

It’s possible, for example, that some smaller organisations may have trouble managing more than two projects at any one time without extra administrative support.

Groups in this situation typically:

• have difficulties with the application process
• change partners/participants during the lifetime of the project
• submit late or poor quality final reports.

Before we make our assessment of your organisational performance we may take look back at your past performance.

We may limit the number of live awards we can make to you to two at any one time until such time as your organisation has developed the capacity to manage more projects.

Above all, we are keen to work with you to help improve your systems and processes so that you can apply for more funding in the future.