Programme institutions

The Managing Authority

The Managing Authority – which is included in the Ministry of Economic Development organisational structure – is responsible for managing the Programme.

It is responsible for efficient and correct implementation of a given programme as a whole and at the level of individual projects. It also issues guidelines, recommendations and handbooks focusing on different aspects related to the implementation of the programme and carries out promotional and information activities.

The Managing Authority has very broad competences – from developing the Programme itself, through the selection of projects for co-financing, ordering payments to be made to beneficiaries and verifying the regularity of beneficiaries’ expenditure, to monitoring the progress in the implementation of the programme and assessing the level of achievement of relevant objectives.

The Managing Authority’s general responsibility for appropriate management of the programme is related to the requirement of certification of expenditure incurred by the beneficiaries, i.e. the need to confirm the regularity of such expenditure and its compliance with national and EU law before the European Commission.

The tasks of the Managing Authority have been described in detail in the Act on the Principles of Implementation of Cohesion Policy Programmes in the 2014-2020 Financial Perspective (the so-called Implementation Act).

They encompass:

• preparation of selection criteria proposals with respect to projects to be financed;
• selection of projects to be financed;
• conclusion of project co-financing agreements with applicants, or issuing decisions on project co-financing;
• ordering payments to be made to beneficiaries;
• ensuring that data used in the process of monitoring of implementation of the operational programme is up-to-date and accurate;
• acting as the Certifying Institution/ performing tasks related to certification;
• controlling the implementation of the operational programme, including verification of the regularity of expenditure incurred by beneficiaries;
• imposition of financial adjustments;
• recovery of funds, in particular:
  • issuing decisions about the reimbursement of funds allocated to projects or tasks, and decisions on the payment of interest,
  • issuing decisions about discontinuing, in whole or in part, and about deferring repayment or payment by instalments of sums allocated to projects or tasks that the beneficiary is obliged to reimburse,
  • examination of appeals against decisions referred to in points a and b issued in the first instance by the Intermediary Body or the Implementing Authority;
• evaluation of the Operational Programme;
• monitoring the progress of implementation of the Operational Programme;
• dissemination of information and promotion of the Operational Programme.