WORKING WITH DG ECHO AS AN NGO PARTNER | FPA 2014 - 2020

OPEN AMOUNT

FAQ 5 - How do the financial thresholds based on the open amount affect a given partner?

The financial threshold based on the open amount defines ECHO’s accepted level of risk exposure to the partner. The accepted level of risk exposure is expressed as a percentage of the organisation's turnover. This amount decreases any time ECHO pays a pre-financing and increases again upon submission of a request of further pre-financing or of the final report.

Example:

Organisation maximum accepted open amount = € 2.000.000
Action budget: € 1.000.000
First pre-financing received: 50% = € 500.000
Available open amount: € 1.500.000
When the partner declares that 70% of the first pre-financing has been consumed (= € 350.000), it may submit a request for a second pre-financing.
Second pre-financing received: 30% = € 300.000
Available open amount: € 1.500.000 + € 350.000 – € 300.000 = € 1.550.000

As soon as the partner submits the final payment request (together with the final report), and assuming that the total incurred costs correspond to the initial budget, the open amount will return to € 2.000.000.

FAQ 6 - At the Final Report stage, is the reduction of the open amount done on the date of the submission of the Final Report or on date of the establishment of the final amount?

The open amount will be reduced on the date of the submission of the Final Report.

FAQ 7 - Following submission of the interim report, are the already incurred costs deducted from the open amount?

INTERIM REPORT

The submission of interim report will not affect the threshold of the open amount.

FAQ 85 - Under the FPA 2014 what is the position of ECHO towards consortia?

FINAL REPORT | CONSORTIUM

Consortia within ECHO-funded grant agreements are defined as an Action under which several FPA partners work together under a consortium arrangement, with one FPA partner signing the Specific Grant Agreement and acting as the lead of the consortium, while other FPA partners also take part in the implementation. DG ECHO will not impose on partners to work in consortia. However, it may decide to fund voluntary consortia when operationally justified.
The Specific Grant Agreement will be signed only with the lead partner organisation, while the other consortia members will be described in section 6.7 of the Single Form. In order to ease ECHO assessment of the proposal, it might be advisable to indicate which partner will be in charge of a specific result.

As there is only one signatory of the Agreement, that partner carries the legal and financial responsibility for the action.

Nevertheless, several facilities are available when working in an ECHO-funded Action implemented by a consortium:

The consortium members may agree with the lead member that each applies its own procurement rules and, if applicable, their own depreciation methodology of equipment.
In its risk assessment, ECHO will take in consideration the share of each consortium member from ECHO's contribution, rather than the whole amount being calculated under the share of the lead partner.
In addition, it may be useful to recall that:
- In case it is needed to have more time for the lead partner to gather the data from the other members, ECHO may agree to a longer final reporting deadline than the default 3 months after the end of the implementation.
- In line with the general rules on eligibility, coordination costs linked to the consortia may be accepted as eligible, provided they are reasonable and necessary.