European Structural and Investment Funds: preparing for closure – best practice guide and key deadlines

Operation monitoring and evaluation

Operation indicators

 Lead Partners must also ensure when reporting their final results against the chosen indicators selected for their operation that these are accurate, are supported by the appropriate evidence, and that they have met and continue to meet the relevant indicator definitions. Timing of the ending of operation activity is therefore important and critical to ensure all relevant results can be captured and provided in time for the submission of the final claim. Discussion with your portfolio and compliance manager should begin as soon as possible where delays to this reporting are expected. See final claims section.

Evaluation

Where applicable, Lead Partners should have outlined and agreed the evaluation proposals with the Managing Authority during their operations lifetime; this will usually be in the form of a monitoring and evaluation plan. In the majority of cases, final evaluation is required and the operation’s final amount of grant will not be released until this document has been received and signed off by the Managing Authority. Operations should make sure to plan accordingly to make sure that any delay of the final amount will be minimal. The final payment will be released upon authorisation of the final claim, on the condition that the Managing Authority are content and that all aspects of operation delivery and achievement are satisfactory.

Lead Partners therefore need to carefully consider the delivery date of their final evaluation as documents being delivered after the operation end date will mean the operation does not close in Managing Authority terms – see above. It is important to allow enough time at the end of the operation to complete an evaluation and include the final set of indicator figures.