Management of Structural and Cohesion Funds

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Management of Structural and Cohesion
Funds Louvain, March 2004
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National Roads Authority

• Established under the Roads Act, 1993
• To secure the provision of a safe and efficient
  network of national roads
• Responsible for delivery of the national roads
  programme in accordance with Government policy
• Supervises project planning and implementation by
  local authorities
• Allocates funding for road projects
• Implements the Public Private Partnership (PPP)
  programme for national roads

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96,000 km of public road
National Network (Primary and Secondary)
comprises 6 of entire public roads network
Carries 40 of all traffic
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Roads Administration
Department of Transport
National Roads Authority
Local Authorities
Regional Design Offices
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Internal Organisation
14 Board Members
Chief Executive
Head of Project Management Engineering
Head of Corporate Affairs
Internal Support Services
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Internal Organisation
Head of Project Management and Engineering

• Project Management
• Contracts
• Specification
• Structures
• Project Planning Reporting
• Classification
• Transportation
• Signing Lining
• Safety, Research Needs Database
• Pavement Monitoring Maintenance

Senior Project Managers
Engineering Inspectors
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Internal Organisation
Corporate Affairs
Head of Corporate Affairs
EU/NDP
Programme Division
Corporate Affairs
Environment
PPP
Archaeology
Land Acquisition

• E.U. claims for recoupment of expenditure.
• Responding to correspondence from LAs, Public
  Representatives, DoELG, general public etc
• Speech/briefing material
• Environmental and Archaeological policies
• Land Acquisition Policies
• Public Private Partnerships
• Communications

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Internal Organisation
Internal Support Services
Personnel
IT
Financial Audit

• Personnel
• IT Support
• Financial Audit Unit (Accountant and two
  Technicians)

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Project Selection and Appraisal

• NDP Standard Project Selection Criteria
• NDP/CSF programme and measure objectives
• Economic impact
• Financial viability
• Cost effectiveness
• Impact on environment, equal opportunities,
  poverty and rural development

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Project Selection and Appraisal

• National Roads Priority (2000-2006) Objectives
• Improve reliability of road transport system
• Improve internal road transport infrastructure
• Better access to and from main ports/airports
• Contribute to sustainable transport policies
• Meet objectives of the Government Strategy for
  Road Safety

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Project Selection and Appraisal

• National Roads Measure Strategy
• Development of 5 Major Inter-Urban Routes to
  Motorway/Dual Carriageway
• Major improvements to other national primary
  routes
• Completion of M50 and Dublin Port Tunnel
• Improvement of national secondary routes of
  particular importance to economic development
• High priority to be attached to road safety

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Project Selection and Appraisal

• Specific road improvements determined by
  National Road Needs Study 1998
• entire national road network surveyed to
  determine Level of Service (LOS) being achieved
• Recommend appropriate road type for each section
  to cater for projected traffic flows 2000-2019
  based on LOS D objective 80kph average journey
  speed
• Prioritise by 5 year groupings
• Backlog (not meeting LOS D up to 1999)
• Phase 1 (2000-2004) Phase 2 (2005-2009)
• Phase 3 (2010-2014) Phase 4 (2015-2019)

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Project Selection and Appraisal

• Backlog and Phase 1 schemes formed the basis of
  the national roads section of the National
  Development Plan
• NDP adopted LOS C 94kph for 5 Major Inter-Urban
  Routes reflecting importance attached to these
  for economic/regional development
• Need for development of new routes to be
  evaluated over the period of the Plan

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Sources of Financing 1994-2006
Road Improvement Funding Source 1994-1999
2000-2006 M M Cohesion 569 231 ERDF
562 530 Exchequer 720 3555 PPP -
1270 _____ ______ Total 1851 5586 Main
tenance Funding (Exchequer) 184 381
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Financing

• NDP/annual allocation to NRA only distinguishes
  between improvement and maintenance expenditure
• Matter for NRA to determine expenditure on
  national primary and national secondary roads
  having regard to NDP programme objectives
• Moving towards a 5-year rolling Multi-Annual
  Funding arrangement

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Project Management

• National Roads Project Management Guidelines
• Main project planning phases
• Overall Project Planning
• Constraints Study
• Route Selection
• Preliminary Design/Land Acquisition/Statutory
  Procedures
• Contract Documents Preparation/Tender/Award
• Project Construction
• Final Account/Closeout
• Reporting and approval after each phase Project
  Reporting System

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Major Projects - Planning Approval Process
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N6 Galway to East Ballinasloe
Existing N4 - N6
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N6 Galway to East Ballinasloe
Corridors under review
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Route Selection Main Framework Headings
1. Environmental 2. Engineering 3. Traffic 4.
Financial 5. Summary
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Route Selection Summary of Assessment
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Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

• EIA requirements set out in Directive 85/337/EC
  amended by 97/11/EC
• Projects likely to have significant effects on
  the environment by virtue of their nature, size
  or location are subject to EIA
• Annex I projects EIA mandatory
• Annex II projects EIA determined on case by
  case basis and/or thresholds taking into account
  Annex III selection criteria
• Annex I includes construction of motorways and
  express roads and construction of road of 4 or
  more lanes.10kms length
• Annex II includes construction of roads.not
  included in Annex I
• Annex IV sets out information to be contained in
  EIS

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Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

• Directive transposed into Roads Act
  1993/Regulations 1994
• EIS required for
• Motorways
• 8 km of new four or more lane road in rural
  areas
• 500m of new four or more lane road in urban
  areas, and
• 100m of new bridge or tunnel.
• Local authorities with Irish Planning Board
  agreement may identify need for EIS for projects
  below thresholds must consider this where
  projects impacting European sites (link with
  Habitats Directive)
• Where EIS not required, practice is to prepare
  Environmental Impact Report (non-statutory)

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Cost Benefit Analysis

• Cost Benefit Analysis is one element of the
  appraisal process for road infrastructure
  projects
• NRA Guidelines for Cost Benefit Analysis
• Requires CBA at three phases of project
  management
• Phase 3 Route Selection
• Phase 4 Preliminary Design
• Phase 7 Final Account/Closeout
• 5 discount rate (Department of Finance)

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Indicators Programme Complement

• Monitoring indicators set out in Programme
  Complement
• Extent of completion of five major inter-urban
  routes to motorway/high quality dual carriageway
• Extent of completion of Greater Dublin Area
  projects
• Result indicators
• Travel time savings achieved on five major
  inter-urban routes (final target of 180 minutes)
• Level of Service achieved on other routes (final
  target of LOS D on 90 of other national primary
  routes)

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ESIOP Monitoring Committee

• Report on National Roads Measure
• Expenditure and commentary on activities
• ERDF expenditure and update on projects
• Update on Monitoring Indicators
• Update on Financial Management and Control
• Other significant developments/issues
• Horizontal issues environment, equality of
  opportunity, rural development, social inclusion
  (poverty)

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NRA Procedures Manual EU Unit

• Sets out procedures for
• Preparation for Cohesion Fund Monitoring
  Committee meetings
• Cohesion Fund applications
• Progress reports
• Interim payment claims
• Final payment claims
• ERDF request for confirmation of the rate of
  assistance
• TEN-T application
• TEN-T annual project status report
• Briefing documents for audits

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Cohesion Fund Applications

• Information required
• Project reference number
• Details of authority responsible for application
  (NRA) organisation responsible for project
  implementation (local authority) and authority to
  which payments are made (Dept. of Finance)
• Indicate sector (Transport) and transport domain
  (Roads)
• Indicate region and local authority
• Objectives of the project/stage of the project
• Description of the relevant overall strategy
• Main problems detected and how project
  contributes to resolution

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Cohesion Fund Applications

• Information required (contd)
• Objectives and targets
• Coherence of the project with other interventions
• Possible alternatives considered
• Principal quantified objectives
• Description of the project kms, bridges,
  interchanges etc
• Anticipated timetable of project
• Cost breakdown, financial plan per year and costs
  of environmental mitigation measures
• Financial and economic analysis, cost benefit
  analysis
• Amount of financial assistance

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Cohesion Fund Applications

• Information required (contd)
• Employment impact of the scheme
• Details of OJEC advertisement
• Details of State aids
• Environmental information (contribution to
  sustainable development, polluter pays principle,
  environmental authorities)
• Other funding sources
• Key monitoring indicators earthworks, pavement,
  structures etc.
• Arrangements for management, monitoring and
  control
• Publicity measures

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Cohesion Fund Applications

• Information required (contd)
• Network/transport corridor/transport policy
  information
• Annex I information regarding EIA and
  declaration by nature conservation authorities
  (Natura 2000)
• Annex II public procurement procedure
• Annex III specific information/map

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Cohesion Fund Monitoring Committee

• Progress reports for each cohesion funded project
  prepared twice a year
• Progress reports
• Description of the project and cohesion fund
  element of project
• Initial and current EU decision and aid amounts
• Payments received by Exchequer to date
• Current estimated cost of the cohesion fund
  element of the project
• Start date
• Physical progress of cohesion fund element of
  project
• Completion date

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Cohesion Fund Monitoring Committee

• Progress reports(contd.)
• EU decision and cohesion fund reference numbers
• Date of report, currency and grant aid rate
• Table A financial information
• Table B implementation by category of
  expenditure (studies and design, land acquisition
  and civil works)
• Table C physical monitoring by category
  (planning and design, supervision, land
  acquisition, earthworks, pavement, structures,
  other works)
• Table D any change in financial or physical
  aspect of the project and reasons
• Table E completion date

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Cohesion Fund Interim Claims

• Interim payment claims generally prepared
  bi-annually
• Claim based on local authority expenditure to
  previous quarter
• Interim payment claim
• Project name, EU decision number, Commission
  reference number, and national reference number
• Commencement date for eligible funding
• Amount of certified eligible expenditure to date
• Date of cumulative expenditure
• Certification by the Authority
• Statement of expenditure incurred in the project
  in relation to cohesion fund element of project

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Cohesion Fund Interim Claims

• Interim payment claim
• Category of expenditure (planning, land
  acquisition, site preparation, building/constructi
  on, equipment, technical assistance, publicity)
• Total expenditure incurred between date of
  commencement of decision and date of return
• Expenditure certified in present declaration
• Total expenditure planned (initial budget)
• Expenditure incurred to date as proportion of
  initial budget
• Estimated expenditure still required to complete
  project
• Details of who payments are made to (Dept. of
  Finance)
• Information regarding publicity measures
• Claim submitted to Dept. of Transport and on to
  Dept. of Finance

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Cohesion Fund Final Report

• Submitted within 6 months after final date in EU
  decision granting assistance
• Final Report
• Description of works
• Breakdown of costs and physical indicator
• Provisions concerning tenders
• Information on compliance with Community
  Environment Directives
• Publicity measures
• Conformity of works with Commission Decision
• Start date of operation of project
• Management of project following completion

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Cohesion Fund Final Report

• Final Report (contd.)
• Confirmation of forecast or operation costs and
  revenues generated
• Cost benefit analysis
• Measures taken to protect the environment

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Cohesion Fund Final Payment Claim

• Submitted within 6 months after final date in EU
  decision granting assistance
• Final payment
• Project name, EU decision number, Commission
  reference number, and national reference number
• Commencement date for eligible funding
• Amount of certified eligible expenditure to date
• Date of cumulative expenditure
• Certification by the Authority
• Statement of expenditure incurred in the project
  in relation to cohesion funded elements of the
  scheme
• Category of expenditure (planning, land
  acquisition, site preparation, building/constructi
  on, equipment, technical assistance, publicity

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Cohesion Fund Final Payment Claim

• Final payment (contd.)
• Total expenditure incurred between the date of
  commencement of decision and date of return
• Expenditure certified in the present declaration
• Total expenditure planned (initial budget)
• Expenditure incurred to date as proportion of
  initial budget
• Estimated expenditure still required to complete
  project
• Information on publicity measures

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ERDF/Cohesion Fund Audits

• Briefing document prepared for audits
• Overview
• Cost benefit analysis
• Project application
• Commission decisions
• Schedule of Cohesion receipts and copy of final
  claim
• Final Report
• OJ references
• NRA approvals of main contracts

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Major Projects

• Projects where the total cost exceeds 50m
• Application for confirmation of rate of
  assistance
• Project reference number and details of authority
  responsible for application (NRA), organisation
  responsible for project implementation (local
  authority), authority that issues payments
  certificates (Dept. of Transport) and
  organisation to which payments are made (Dept. of
  Finance)
• Title of project, description, location
• Indicate relevant structural fund (ERDF) and
  related OP (ESIOP)
• Objectives of the scheme, link to measure and OP
• Anticipated timetable for project

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Major Projects

• Application for confirmation of rate of
  assistance (contd.)
• Cost breakdown, financial plan per year, cost of
  environmental mitigation
• Provision for operating and maintenance costs
• Conclusions of the cost benefit analysis
• Employment impact
• Indication of State aids
• Details on public procurement
• Details on environmental issues
• Impact of Community assistance on project
  implementation

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Major Projects

• Application for confirmation of rate of
  assistance (contd.)
• Eligible cost of the project, source of financing
  and assistance rate
• Complementary to any project financed by the
  Cohesion Fund
• Application for assistance from any other
  Community source
• Monitoring indicators (as per Programme
  Complement)
• Arrangements for management, monitoring and
  control
• Publicity measures
• Annex I procurement
• Annex II EIA and declaration from nature
  conservation authority

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Management of Structural and Cohesion
Funds Louvain, March 2004