Department of European Funds
Ministry of the Interior and Administration

DEPARTMENT OF EUROPEAN FUNDS OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR AND ADMINISTRATION
– PROGRAMME OPERATOR

and

EUROPEAN PROJECTS IMPLEMENTATION CENTRE OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR AND ADMINISTRATION

ANNOUNCE AN OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSALS

under the “HOME AFFAIRS” Programme for thematic area No. 18 „Asylum and Migration”

financed with funds from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–2021.

 

Objective: The call aims to ensure the functioning of national asylum and migration management systems and to ensure the right to seek asylum, inter alia, by:

• support for the national asylum and migration management systems, including voluntary returns;
• services supporting asylum-seekers in the exercise of their fundamental rights (psychological and legal assistance, providing comprehensive information to migrants and asylum-seekers);
• actions in the area of voluntary returns, including in particular training, workshops for officers and staff members having direct contact with migrants;
• assistance to unaccompanied minors and other groups with special needs.

Projects containing elements of bilateral and international cooperation and cooperation between public administration and NGOs (i.e. joint conferences, workshops, meetings, etc.), as well as projects which include elements related to:

• combating trafficking in human beings,
• supporting voluntary returns,
• support and services for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum and other groups with special needs,
• combating gender-based violence

will receive additional points.

 

Potential applicants have been limited to institutions/organisations indicated below:

Eligible applicants: public bodies, i.e. institutions representing the public finance sector (pursuant to the Act on public finance, Dz. U. [Journal of Laws] of 2019, item 869, as amended), non-governmental organisations established as legal person in Poland, operating within the area of asylum and migration[1], as well as international organisations or their bodies or agencies operating within the area of asylum and migration[2].

Partnership under a project: public bodies, i.e. institutions representing the public finance sector (pursuant to the Act on public finance), non-governmental organisations established as legal person in Poland, Norway, other Beneficiary State or a country from outside the European Economic Area, which shares a border with Poland, and actively operating within the area of asylum and migration[3], as well as international organisations or their bodies, or agencies operating within the area of asylum and migration[4].

 

Total amount available under the call: EUR 3,172,000 – PLN 13 774 727,20 (according to the average monthly rate published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union, calculated for the 6-month period before the date of publication of the notice, i.e. EUR 1 = PLN 4.3426).

Project funding: minimum grant amount for a project is EUR 200,000, with the maximum being EUR 1,500,000.

Level of grant from the “Home Affairs” Programme under the NFM funds for project promoters being public bodies is the equivalent of up to 100% of eligible costs[5].

Level of grant from the “Home Affairs” Programme under the NFM for project promoters being non-governmental organisations or international organisations is the equivalent of up to 90% of eligible costs. The application must include the applicant’s declaration of own contribution made towards the project’s implementation in the amount equivalent to at least 10%, made from the applicant’s own funds and/or funds obtained from other sources of funding and/or in the form of voluntary work.

In case of projects where the project promoter is an NGO or a social partner, in-kind contribution in the form of voluntary work may constitute up to 50% of the co-financing required by the programme for the project.

 

Eligibility of expenditures:

Expenditure shall be considered eligible in accordance with the general principles, pursuant to Article 8.3 of the Regulation on the implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–2021 (available on the website fundusze.mswia.gov.pl).

In particular, the following direct expenditure shall be considered eligible upon meeting the criteria listed in Article 8.3.1 of the Regulation:

1. costs of staff assigned to the project, including actual remunerations, social insurance contributions and other statutory costs that make up the remuneration, provided they comply with the standard principles for determining remunerations applied by the project promoter and partner under the project. Appropriate remuneration costs for the national administration personnel are eligible to the extent in which they refer to the costs of measures that would not have been carried out had the implementation of a given project not commenced;
2. travel expenses and subsistence allowance for the staff assigned to the project. Taking into account the principle of proportionality, travel expenses, including subsistence allowance, may be calculated as a lump sum, according to specific rules approved by the Programme Operator;
3. cost of new or used equipment. When the Programme Operator concludes that equipment constitutes an integral and necessary element for achieving the project’s objectives, the entire purchase price of said equipment may also be eligible – by way of derogation from the rule featured in Article 8.2(4) of the Regulation;
4. purchase of land and real estate on conditions set out in Article 8.6 of the Regulation;
5. costs of consumables and supplies, provided that they can be identified and have been incurred in relation to the project;
6. costs derived from other agreements entered into by the project promoter for the purpose of implementing the project, provided that signing them does not infringe on applicable public procurement rules and these Regulations;
7. expenses that directly follow from requirements imposed by the project contract for each project.

 

Generally, investment expenditures[6] should not exceed 60% of total eligible expenditure in the project budget. However, if they do exceed this limit, the Applicant shall be obligated to provide a detailed explanation that justifies exceeding the limit, in the descriptive section of the project sheet.

Eligible expenditure also include indirect expenditures, i.e. all costs that the project promoter and/or partner under the project cannot attribute to the project, but which may be indicated and justified under the accounting system as having been incurred directly in relation to the direct eligible costs under the project. Methods for demonstrating indirect costs are specified in Article 8.5(1)(a), (b), (c) and (e) of the Regulation. The call for proposals does not provide for the possibility of demonstrating indirect costs by using the method referred to in Article 8.5(1)(d).

Detailed description of how to calculate indirect costs and all other information on the eligibility of expenditures, procedures to follow in making reports and payments, documenting expenditures, including information on settlements and financial flows in projects involving foreign partners, can be found in the Guidelines for Project Promoters under the Home Affairs Programme of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–2021 (Annex 2 to the Call for proposals announcement).

 

An expenditure being included in the project budget is not considered confirmed in terms of its eligibility.

Date of eligibility of expenditures: Expenditures incurred after 30 April 2024 shall not be considered eligible.

Funding:

The funding model adopted for a project depends on the status of its project promoter:

• State budget entities

State budget entities ensure funds to carry out project-related tasks by making appropriate allowances in their budget.

• Entities that are not State budget entities

Advance

An advance shall be paid to the Project Promoter after they sign a project agreement, submit a payment claim for the first advance, and provide appropriate collateral for proper execution of the aforementioned agreement.

The amount of the advance is up to 50% of the grant value. Exact value of the first advance payment that Project Promoter may apply for has been set out in the project agreement.

Further interim payments

Further payments shall be paid to the Project Promoter after at least 70% of the funds value transferred so far has been used and certified by the EPIC at the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.

Final payment

Final payment for the Project Promoter shall be made after approval of the reporting documentation as part of the project.

 

Payment system details have been described in the Guidelines for Project Promoters.

 

Deadline for submission of applications: 14 August 2020

NOTE: I would like to kindly inform you that the Programme Operator will not extend the abovementioned deadline.

 

Application has to be prepared on the form provided by the Programme Operator / EPIC MIA constituting Annex No. 1 to the Call for proposals announcement.

The application must also indicate all the consultants involved in the preparation of the application.

Details on preparing and submitting the application have been concluded in the Rules of procedure, constituting Annex No. 3 to the Call for proposals announcement.

As a date of receipt of the application by the EPIC MIA should be considered:

1. the date of posting (date of postmark) – only in case of posting at a Polish post office of the operator designated under the Act of 23 November 2012 – Postal law (Dz. U. [Journal of Laws] of 2018, item 2188, as amended). At the same time, only applications submitted to the EPIC MIA Headquarters (Centrum Obsługi Projektów Europejskich Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji, ul. Puławska 99a, 02-595 Warszawa) within 14 days from the completion of the call for proposals, will be considered as applications submitted;
2. date of submission/date of delivery to the EPIC MIA – in case of submitting in person, posting through a postal operator other than designated operator referred to in point 1, or posting by a courier, the date of receiving by EPIC MIA is considered binding;
3. date of submission to the incoming correspondence box of the EPIC MIA – in case of sending the application to the ePUAP platform.

Projects evaluation:

Evaluation of projects is two-level and consists of formal (carried out based on administrative and eligibility criteria) and substantive evaluation.

Formal evaluation is carried out by Polish experts, representatives of the EPIC MIA. Formal evaluation provides for a supplementation procedure lasting 7 working days. Only projects that fulfil all the formal criteria will be subjected to the substantive evaluation. In the case of formal evaluation, the applicant will be entitled to appeal to the National Focal Point via the EPIC MIA. There is not further internal appeal procedure against the decision of the National Focal Point.

In the case of a positive formal evaluation (under standard procedure or under appeal procedure), the applicant will be obliged to translate the application into English. EPIC MIA will notify the Applicant about the positive result of the formal evaluation.

The substantive evaluation is carried out by at least two independent experts (representative of the PO or the EPIC MIA and the external expert). Each application is assessed by two experts and the final score awarded to the application constitutes the average of points awarded by both experts. If the difference between the number of points awarded by experts exceeds 30%, the application is verified in substantive terms by a third independent expert nominated by the PO. In such cases, the average score of the two closest scoring results shall be used.

The minimum total number of points (averaged over the experts' evaluations) that would allow an application to be considered as recommended is: 65 points, provided that the admission criteria have also been met, i.e. under criterion 1, one should:

• obtain at least 19 points,
• obtain at least 8 points in section 1.4,
• choose at least one indicator provided for the “Home Affairs” Programme,
• specify at least one own indicator for the project,
• in the case of a project run in partnership with a Norwegian institution and/or international organisation – choose at least one bilateral indicator provided for the “Home Affairs” Programme;

under criterion 2, one should: obtain at least 10 points.

Projects that have received the minimum number of points (65 points) are recommended for funding, which is not equivalent to receiving funding. Projects will be funded within the limits of available funds.

No appeal procedure against the substantive evaluation is envisaged.

Following the substantive evaluation, the ranking list prepared by the PO shall be submitted to the Selection Committee. Selection Committee shall consist of at least 4 voting members, including 2 representatives appointed by the Programme Operator, and 2 representatives of the Donor Programme Partners. Representatives of the NFP and the Norwegian MFA will be invited to participate as observers in the process of project selection. The Committee reviews the ranking list of projects during the meeting or by mail; the ranking list may be modified in justified cases. Justification of changes will be detailed in the Committee protocol.

The final recommendation of projects for co-financing should be made accepted by the Inter-ministerial Team for the Home Affairs European Funds by way of a resolution.

 

The detailed rules for acceptance, evaluation and selection of applications with criteria of formal and substantive evaluation are included in the Rules of procedure for call for projects and project selection under the “Home Affairs” Programme of thematic area 18 (Annex 3 to the Call for applications).

 

The final ranking list covering projects chosen for financing will be published on the website www.fundusze.mswia.gov.pl and applicants will receive official letters in this regard.

Projects which failed to receive financing due to insufficient amount of funding will be placed on the reserve list.

 

Formal and substantive evaluation sheets containing criteria for projects selection are included in the Annex to the announcement.

Questions on rules and scope of the call can be submitted via e-mail: fundusze.kontakt@mswia.gov.pl, not later than 7 working days before the deadline for the submission of applications.

Questions asked within this deadline will be published with answers on the website www.fundusze.mswia.gov.pl within up to 5 days prior to the deadline for the submission of applications. All documents, including Regulations and guidelines relevant to this call for proposals, are available on the website eog.gov.pl.

The complaints procedure: rules for reporting irregularities have been described on the website: eog.gov.pl.

 

Annexes:

1. Application form – Thematic area PA 18 of the “Home Affairs” Programme NFM 2014–2021;

2. Guidelines for Project Promoters of the “Home Affairs” Programme NFM 2014–2021;

3. Rules of Procedure for call for projects and project selection under the “Home Affairs” – Thematic area PA 18;

4. Formal evaluation sheet;

5. Substantive evaluation sheet.

 

Policy papers:

• Regulation on the implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–2021;
• Programme Agreement “Home Affairs”;
• Guidelines on awarding procurement contracts under the EEA financial mechanism for 2014–2021 and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for 2014–2021;
• Handbook of Communication and Visual Identity for EEA funds and Norway Grants 2014–2021.

 

 

[1] The scope of an NGO’s operations must follow from its statute.

[2] The scope of an international organisation’s operations and that of its body or agency must follow from the legal act establishing the international organisation, its body or agency.

[3] See footnote 1.

[4] See footnote 2.

[5] 15% is the contribution of the State budget secured in the entity’s budget.

[6] Investment expenditure – an investment expenditure shall be an expenditure incurred to purchase a fixed asset whose individual value exceeds PLN 10,000. As a rule, purchase of services (e.g. conference, training, transport services, etc.), even if their individual value exceeds PLN 10,000, shall not be considered an investment expenditure.