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22.     Will the updating of the logframe online in OPSYS substitute the standard financial and narrative report?

  • No. All reporting obligations as per signed contract/agreement are still valid. Updating the logframe will be required to be performed off-OPSYS too

  • For new contracts/agreements a provision will be included to make sure that updating the logframe in OPSYS will be an additional reporting requirement

  • In order to avoid double work and potential inconsistencies, it is advised to update the logframe in OPSYS, use the print function, and attach it to the narrative report

23.     Is it possible to modify/change the Logframe after its validation in OPSYS?

·       Changes to the contract/agreement, including logframe changes, are possible within the scope allowed by the type of contract/agreement and its provisions

·       As a general rule, non-substantial changes in a logframe (not changing the overall objective/impact and specific objectives/outcomes of the intervention) are possible provided the relevant procedure is followed in agreement with the Operational Manager (OM)

·       Please check with the OM which are the rules applying to your contract/agreement – those are the same to be used also using OPSYS as the tool to update the logframe

 

Contribution Agreements


I am new to this field. Can you kindly indicate some material for Beginner Project Managers? 

If we need to create an account to log into the Portal, can you confirm this will not impact the account created with the LEAR and PIC related?

Many user accounts can be linked to one PIC (organisation). Creating a new account and linking it to a PIC will not impact existing accounts (including the LEAR) already linked to a PIC.
The search for contracts does not work for specific contracts under the umbrella of the Framework Contract. We can see the contracts, but the search engine does not work for specific contracts.

When creating the account, should we use the name of the PCoCo or the CoCo?

For Contribution Agreements, the first name, surname and email address used when creating the EU Login account should be communicated to the Contracting Authority by the representative of the organisation during the negotiation stage (i.e. therefore before contract preparation). The PCoCo is then assigned to the contract by the EC Operational Manager during the contract preparation.

Our (Primary) Coordinator Contact (PCoCo) is our Managing Partner, I am acting as the Project Manager.

The Person to act as PCoco is to be identified within your Organisation, keeping in mind that this PCoco role is a Project-level role. As Project Manager, it makes sense that you be identified as Coco. You therefore need to coordinate with your PCoco to be granted the role in the Portal.

Can you please confirm how long it will take to receive access to the portal as I have just created an account?

 There is just a waiting time between registering and having access to the portal. Whoever is the PCoCo for a specific Contribution Agreement can only assign another person as a CoCo for that contract.

You mentioned that the OPSYS onboarding does not apply for onboarding Contribution Agreements encoded in CRIS, so what is the cut-off date in terms of signature to consider?

For any ongoing contracts and contracts signed before February 2024, these remain outside OPSYS. From 2025, there will be a migration of contracts signed outside the system into OPSYS.

With regards to roles, in our case LEAR and the Legal Signatory (LSIGN*) at organisation level are the same person. When we have new projects in OPSYS, is this person assigned as Legal Signature as default or do we need to assign specific Legal signatories for each project?

Your LEAR can appoint several LSIGNs* and they have the implicit ability to sign any contract for Contribution Agreements within the organisation.

*Please note that the LSIGN has been replaced with Procurement LSIGN since February 2024. For more information on the role, please read more.

Should the Contracting Authority in each case be the one informing us of the workflow that needs to be followed?

Indeed, the Contracting Authority will look at the case and the workflow to be used (based on certain criteria) will be communicated during a negotiation phase. This will be decided by the Contracting Authority.

We understand that using OPSYS applies to EU external actions. Is there any expectation to make it extensive to other type of actions any time soon? Because we will have to prepare guidance for our colleagues, given the volume of contracts the OECD has.

The Contribution Agreements that are going to be signed in OPSYS are applicable for DG’s INTPA, NEAR and FPI. For any Contribution Agreements signed outside of these DGs; there is no timeline to incorporate them into the system.

The OECD has already agreed with the European Commission on certain templates to use. Is it mandatory to apply the templates to all contracts, provided that only a few may be required to be processed via OPSYS?

The OECD does indeed use the Contribution Agreement template, although there is an NFPA included with the OECD, so some adjustments are needed, but we will work internally to have a version that is usable for ACM.

Will the  slides be available after the webinar?

Recording and presentations on the Contributions Agreements Webinars are available at the INTPA Academy.

November 2023 session: EN

February 2024 sessions:

If my organisation manages grants as part of a project funded by the EU, does this count as CAFI?

A grant issued under indirect management is a standard contribution agreement. Whether it is a Contribution Agreement for Financial Instruments depends on the action being implemented. Financial instruments are regulated in Title X (Articles 208-214 and 215-217) of the FR.

Is PIC registration done at country office level or HQ level?

At the HQ level. Each office will use the same PIC, the LEAR can then appoint one or many LSIGNs* from your country office.

*Please note that the LSIGN has been replaced with Procurement LSIGN since February 2024. For more information on the role, please read more.

If OPSYS would be a system from another Institution and the Commission would be asked to designate a single LEAR, who would you propose?

The LEAR is appointed from within the partner organisation. Normally the LEAR is a person with legal authority quite 'high-up' within the organisation (ie. CEO or equivalent). Your LEAR stays the same no matter which DG you are signing an agreement with.

Uploading indicators takes a long time because the system seems to be slow. If you have many indicators this is very time consuming. Is it only me having this problem?

  • The slowness of the IT system depends on many different factors. We recommend that you check the technical issues that you encounter with your dedicated Helpdesk: EC-FUNDING-TENDER-SERVICE-DESK@ec.europa.eu
  • To identify Indicators as smoothly as possible, it is very handy to first check the Excel list of Indicators on CAPACITY4DEV and then, when you are in the Log frame, spotting the Indicators by using the SEARCH FILTERS and key words.

Will DG HOME become part of the system too for Contribution Agreements?

There is no plan for DG HOME to onboard Light Contract Management (LCM) to manage Contribution Agreements.

I registered my SME at the end of January 2024 and received the PIC ID. Is there a need to submit by now, any other validation procedure, such as bank account, official certificate of the managing team, equity capital?

The best thing to do is to reach to the relevant PIC MANAGEMENT team. See contact emails:

I am working for UNIDO on the PAIDAR programme in Pakistan (INTV-10822). We are managing a grant portfolio with funding from the EU. This contribution agreement was signed two years ago, so would not be managed on OPSYS. However, would similar projects in the future fall under CAFI?

  • Normally if you signed a Contribution Agreement (CA) in this instance then it will be a standard Contribution Agreement in the future, not a CAFI.
  • CAFI stands for Contribution Agreement for Financial Instruments, it is therefore signed when the entity is implementing Financial Instruments. In your case, we understand a standard CA was signed. Signing a CA or a CAFI does not rely on the IT environment but on the action itself. The launch of LCM will not impact the type of contract to be signed.

From when will it be mandatory to move the Contribution Agreements contracts with pillar-assessed organisations to OPSYS?

 It has become mandatory since 1 February 2024 to sign new contribution agreements in OPSYS.

The contract implementation period is shown in days. It would be easier for us to calculate this in months. Would this be possible?

The screenshot in the presentation showed the example of a contract where the duration is in days. If contracts are encoded into the system in months, they will show in months and not days.

Should Contribution Agreements, for which certain exemptions/supervisory measures have been applied to their special conditions, be encoded outside OPSYS or is there a possibility of integrating these exemptions/measures into the OPSYS models?

Existing supervisory measures for an organization can be found in the Pillar Assessment Automated Workflow (PAAW) found in the ‘Legal Entites’ tab within MyWorkplace.  The user should always encode the exception in the Deviations/Prior Approvals Module in CRIS, even if the contribution agreement is encoded in OPSYS.

How to upload documents and submit them to REA Central Validation Services?

You can do so by following the steps below:

  1. Log in to the Funding & Tenders Portal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home
  2. Click on LOGIN. You will be prompted to authenticate through the EU Login screen.
  3. Go to the ‘Manage my area’ heading, and then click on the ‘My organisation’ tab.
  4. Open the ‘ACTIONS’ menu corresponding to the entity for which you have to modify data, and then click on the ‘Modify Organisation’ option to request updates to the data of your organisation.
  5. Therein, go to the ‘Documents’ tab and click on ‘Add Documents'. You can upload document files with sizes of up to 6 Mb per file. There is no limitation on the overall size of all the uploaded documents for an organisation. You must provide the 'Description', 'Type', (and other details, such as the ‘Year’, if applicable) for each document you upload as these fields are mandatory. Please select the checkbox if the document is in the original language of the organisation (for example, the place of establishment of the organisation).

You can also read and download all the uploaded documents for your respective organisation. However, you may not delete a document once uploaded in the system, even if it was you who uploaded it.

For more information, you may consult:https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/funding-tenders-opportunities/display/IT/Documents

For more information on Contribution Agreements:



 

THANK YOU



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