In order to be eligible, costs of goods needs to be incurred during the Action and be necessary. This implies that the relating results foreseen in the proposal need to be achieved within the duration of the implementation period of the Action.

 

If despite achieving the result, the partner has remaining goods at the end of the implementation period, the following steps - in order - will be taken depending on the volume of the remaining goods:

 

• To request a no-cost extension via an amendment by mutual consent to give more time to distribute the remaining goods, provided that the no-cost extension is still possible and that the distribution meets the needs of the beneficiaries. In order to avoid risk of double funding in the event of an overlap of actions/activities, a no-cost extension is possible only if there is no follow-up Action or when the follow-up Action does not focus on addressing the same needs. (i.e. there is no overlap in the activities/results)

• To transfer or donate the goods taking into consideration the conditions mentioned below.

• To request derogation for goods difficult to transfer.

If the no-cost extension is not possible, and when the Action’s results are achieved and the remaining amount of goods does not result from procurement excessive to the needs, the goods can be transferred to a follow-up ECHO-funded Action.

This applies when ECHO is the single largest donor and the quantity to be transferred is a marginal quantity. What is considered as marginal is to be defined in the light of all the goods of a similar type purchased within a given Action.
ECHO considers as marginal a quantity up to 5% of the goods of similar type purchased in the Action. Per type of goods purchased, we can consider, for example, drugs, food, NFI kits.

 

If there is no follow-up Action, the goods can be donated. When ECHO is the single largest donor and provided the results were achieved, the partner may donate goods left over at the end of the Action, of a marginal quantity, that were not used or distributed to beneficiaries to the following recipients

ECHO prior agreement not required

• Beneficiaries of the Action, i.e. the affected people of the humanitarian crisis

• Local NGOs identified as Implementing partners in the SF

• Local authorities identified as Implementing partners in the SF, e.g. local hospitals.

ECHO prior agreement required

• Local NGOs and local authorities that are not identified as implementing partners in the SF

• International Organisations

• International NGOs

Goods may never be donated to for-profit entities!

In all cases, the partner has to inform in the Final Report on the goods destination and has to keep a donation certificate for future audit purposes

The partners do not have to transfer or donate in the following cases:

• ECHO is not the single largest donor: in this case, the partner can follow the other donor's rules.

• the nature of the goods requires expert handling (e.g. nutrition or health related goods) and the partner pledges to use the retained goods for the benefit of humanitarian actions.
  In this case the partner should ask for a derogation in the section 11 of the Single Form

• remaining goods with a value of up to EUR 750 per category of items, i.e. identical or similar goods, do not need to be transferred or donated if the partner pledges to use them to the benefit of humanitarian actions. Their final use should not be explained in the Final Report.

Below you can download the Decision Tree used by ECHO for Remaining Goods when the quantity of remaining goods is higher than 5% of the quantity of the goods of similar type purchased.