Procedures for the Implementation of Calls for Grant Project Proposals

Issued pursuant to
Section 9, Paragraph seven of the Law on International Assistance

I. General Provision

1. The Regulation prescribes the procedures for preparing and announcing a call for grant project proposals (hereinafter - the call for project proposals), taking of a decision on the awarding of grants, signing of grant contracts and completion of the call for project proposals, for supervising and controlling project implementation, and also the cases where the grant beneficiary must reimburse the awarded funds.

II. Preparation and Announcement of the Call for Project Proposals

2. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereinafter - the Ministry) shall draw up the rules of the call for project proposals to be announced in the Republic of Latvia or the beneficiary country for the allocation of financing or co-financing or the rules of the call for project proposals for the allocation of financing for the implementation of feasibility study visits (hereinafter - the rules of the call for proposals).

3. The following shall be indicated in the rules of the call for proposals:

3.1. objectives and priority areas of the call for proposals;

3.2. financing available in the call for proposals;

3.3. minimum and maximum amount of the grant for each project;

3.4. requirements for the project applicant;

3.5. project implementation time and eligibility period of costs;

3.6. project implementation place;

3.7. eligible costs;

3.8. ineligible activities;

3.9. requirements for the preparation and submission of the project application;

3.10. requirements for the selection of the project application;

3.11. criteria for the evaluation of the project application and their values;

3.12. procedures for the evaluation of the project application;

3.13. minimum number of points for the awarding of the grant;

3.14. provision of information on the call for proposals;

3.15. other information where appropriate.

4. Project application and budget estimate forms of the call for project proposals, draft grant contract, and, where appropriate, other document samples shall be appended to the rules of the call for proposals.

5. The call for project proposals shall be regarded as announced on the next working day after the notice on the announcement of the call for project proposals has been published in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis.

6. The Ministry shall, on the next working day after announcement of the call for project proposals, post information regarding the call for project proposals on its website. If the call for project proposals has been announced in the beneficiary country, information regarding the call for project proposals shall be posted on the website of the embassy of the relevant country.

7. All interested parties have the right to receive additional information regarding the call for project proposals.

8. Sub-paragraphs 3.3 and 3.13 of this Regulation do not apply to the call for project proposals for the allocation of co-financing.

III. Taking of a Decision, Signing Grant Contracts, and Completion of the Call for Project Proposals

9. The Ministry shall take the decision to award the grant or the decision to conditionally award the grant on the basis of the report submitted by the commission for the evaluation of project applications. In the cases specified in the Law on International Assistance, the Ministry shall take the decision not to award the grant.

10. In a fixed-term call for project proposals, the decision to award the grant and to sign the grant contract shall be taken for the implementation of such projects the project applications of which have been recognised as conforming to the requirements of the rules of call for proposals and have acquired the highest number of points. The grant shall be awarded while there is sufficient financing provided for the call for project proposals.

11. After taking of the decision, the project applicant and the Ministry shall, within 30 working days, sign a grant contract.

12. If the project applicant does not sign a grant contract within the time period referred to in Paragraph 11 of this Regulation, the Ministry shall offer the project applicant who had received the next highest evaluation and who had been rejected due to the lack of financing.

13. A fixed-term call for project proposals shall be completed by taking a decision. The Ministry shall, on the next working day after taking of the decision, publish a notice on the results of the call for project proposals.

14. In an open-ended call for project proposals, the decision to award a grant shall be taken in the order of the submission of applications for all project applications which, according to the requirements of the rules of call for proposals, have received a sufficient number of points while the financing intended for the call for project proposals is available. The project applicant and the Ministry shall sign a grant contract in accordance with the procedures referred to in this Regulation.

15. An open-ended call for project proposals shall be completed if the intended financing is not available anymore and the Ministry has published information thereon on its website.

16. Any project applicant may withdraw the submitted project application until the signing of the grant contract.

IV. Supervision and Control

17. The Ministry shall supervise the project implementation by inspecting project reports.

18. The project applicant shall be responsible for efficient and economic use of resources according to the rules of the call for proposals and the signed grant contract.

19. The Ministry has the right to carry out an inspection of the project implementation at the places of project implementation. The grant beneficiary shall be informed of the planned inspection of project implementation not later than two hours before the inspection.

20. According to the conditions of the grant contract, the grant beneficiary shall, after implementation of the grant project, submit the project reports to the Ministry.

21. When evaluating the submitted project reports, the Ministry may request the grant beneficiary to submit additional information regarding the project implementation.

22. If the Ministry finds that the grant beneficiary has not used the financing in line with the rules of the call for proposals and the signed grant contract, the Ministry shall request the grant beneficiary to reimburse the funds that have not been used, have been used inappropriately or unreasonably within the time period specified in the grant contract.

23. If during the evaluation of the project implementation or the project report, the Ministry finds that the project is not being or has not been implemented according to the objective and tasks of the project, the Ministry shall request the grant beneficiary to reimburse all the financing allocated to the project.

V. Closing Provision

24. Calls for proposals which have been announced until the day of coming into force of this Regulation shall be implemented in accordance with Cabinet Regulation No. 2 of 5 January 2010, Procedures for the Implementation of Calls for Grant Project Proposals (Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2010, No. 4; 2013, No. 58, 163).

Prime Minister A. K. Kariņš

Acting for the Minister for Foreign Affairs -
Minister for Finance J. Reirs

Translation © 2020 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)