NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAMME BETWEEN

REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA AND

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO (2004/2006)

BG 2004/016-785.02.01 Joint Small Project Funds Bulgaria- Serbia and Montenegro

No / QUESTION / ANSWER
1 / Is an NGO, registered in the District of Sofia, Municipality of Sofia eligible applicant/partner if it plans to carry out project activities in the eligible municipalities of district of Sofia (Godech, Dragoman, Kostinbrod, Slivnica, Svoge)? / No, it is not eligible. А NGO has to be registered in one of the following municipalities of Sofia District: Godech, Dragoman, Kostinbrod, Svoge and Slivnitca, which are considered to be eligible areas, at least 6 months before the submission deadline of this Call for Proposals. Registration requirements apply for both the organisations as well as its registered branch; both for applicant and partners.
2 / Is it possible for an eligible applicant organisation to participate as a parner in other proposals? / Yes, it is.

For the Bulgarian side

An Applicant/Cross border applicant may not submit more than one proposal, but may participate as a partner in other proposals. An applicant may be awarded only one grant under this Call for Proposals.
For the Serbian side:
An Applicant may submit more than one proposal and can receive more than one grant. However, Joint Evaluation Committee may decide to limit a number of grants per Applicant.
3 / Is a Palace of Culture (Cultural Center) an eligible applicant if it is a unit financed by the Municipality? / Any Palace of Culture (Cultural Center) may submit a proposal, under the present Call for Proposal, only if it is a legal entity, registered under a special law (the Law of Culture Protection and Development) or with a decision of the Municipal Council. If it not a separate legal entity, no matter that it is a subsidiary structure, disposing the budget credits, it can not submit an independent Project proposal – in cases like this one, the Municipality, in whose structure the Palace of Culture is included may submit the Proposal.
4 / What is meant by the definition “and others” in section 2.1.2 (Eligibility of applicants) of Guidelines for Applicants? Who are those “others”? / The listed types of organizations are given just as an example. One of the criteria for eligibility of applicants is its registration and whether it is profit-making. To be eligible any applicant organization should be registered under the Non-profit making legal entities act or other special law. Profit-making legal entities registered under the Company Act and or other profit-making organizations MAY NOТ apply.
5 / How many of the eligible areas for project activities are allowed to be included in the project; for example, on one side, is it possible to plan activities in the area of education exchanges and at the same time activities, including in the area of improving the flow of information and communication in the border region? / There is no restriction to the number of the eligible areas for project activities. However, it is recommended not to mix more than two eligible areas, since it may occur that the project purpose and its objectives become vague and difficult to be achieved.
6 / How are to be foreseen in the budget and after that reported the costs for an overnight stay of a person, involved in the project, who is sent on a trip to a place, where hotels are not available? / In all cases, the reporting of the per diems should be supported by documents. When nights are spent in private houses, the owners are obliged to give at least receipts. If there is no other way, a contract for renting a room for a certain number of days should be signed, accompanies by a receipt.
7 / How and in what currency should a person be paid if he/she is from the Serbian side and is involved in the project activities? Since we know that, after a person, from the other side has been paid, all insurances and TIT (Total Income Tax) have to be deposit with the National Incomes Agency? / According to the Bulgarian Legislation, a legal entity can conclude a contract for an assignment with a foreign citizen. In such case, before the foreigner has been paid, from the total payment, 15% are deducted as a final tax, which means the Bulgarian organization should deduct it and make it as a payment to the Bulgarian tax authorities. The organization does not have any other engagements. It is the expert’s obligation to declare this income in his country. The payment can be made to the expert in Euro. As for the employer’s costs, they should be included in the budget.
8 / Are regional structures of ministries or government agencies eligible for grant under the present Call for Proposals? / No, government structures even if based in the region may not apply or be partners.
9 / Can an eligible organization, which has its brunch in an eligible region in Kyustendil district, be a partner in project, which is submitted by an Applicant from another eligible district, in particular from Northern Bulgaria? / Yes, it is possible. Partners can come from any municipality in the defined eligible area. The organization can apply for grant only through its brunch in the eligible area.
10 / In the logframe, in the cell “Costs: What are the action costs? How are they classified? Breakdown in the budget for the action”: What breakdown exactly it should be made? Are the budget items to be included here? / In this cell you should enter the action costs. It is not necessary to describe them in details as it done in the budget. For each activity, described in the first cell of this row enter a value equal to the envisaged in the budget costs for its implementation.
11 / In clause 1.3 – Budget, should any explanations be included to the separate items in order to avoid additional attachments? / No written explanations or justifications are to be included in the budget. For clarity you may add new sub-items with titles which are enough detailed and well formulated. If in any case additional explanations are needed this can be done in the end of section 1 of the Application form, clause 3 – Project budget.
12 / Budget: clause 5.5.1 Publications. In case these Publications are not carried out by sub-contractors, how exactly they should be described or envisaged? / Publications means: printing and advertising materials, such as: brochures, leaflets, catalogues, web-sites, multimedia presentation etc. Usually such activities are carried out by sub-contractors (various companies). That is why, in this section of the budget only activity costs, done by sub-contractors are to be foreseen.
In case the Applicant is able to carry out this activity on his own, he should describe these costs under point 6 (Others) and the respective costs for labor under point 1 (Human recourses).
13 / Can Museums be:
-  Leading organization – Applicant or
-  Partner in other Bulgarian Project Proposal. / Yes, Museums can participate both as Applicant and Partners. The only condition is they are to be separate legal entities, not a municipal structure. Regional Museums of History are legal (juridical) persons according to the Law of Culture Protection and Development.
14 / Where shall we provide 10% co-financing from? / Co – financing is to be provided from Applicants/Partners’ own recourses or other recourses, including such that are received by donor organizations, other than EU.
15 / Is it possible to involve more than one Serbian Partners in a certain Project Proposal? / Yes, it is possible. The obligatory condition for any Applicant is to have at least one Serbian Partner. That means, any Applicant organization can have as many partners as it needs both from the Serbian and Bulgarian side.
16 / Can one and the same person be involved in several project proposals, which are submitted by different eligible organisations under the present Call for Proposals? / Yes, he/she can. But his/her engagements, associated with both projects should be carefully planned so that if both projects are approved, the total number of days per month, during which the expert will carry out his project activities, should not exceed the normal regulated work time.
17 / Can a mayor of the eligible municipalities be the leader of the Project, the Municipality is the Applicant? / Yes, he/she can. But having in mind mayors’ high workload it is necessary to consider very carefully whether the combination of his/her job and responsibilities as a mayor and these on the project can guarantee its successful implementation.
18 / Can a person who is not a member of the organisation be a leader of a project, with which this organisation applies for a grant under the present Call for Proposals? / Yes, he/she can.
19 / What types of contracts should the project team be appointed with: labour or civil contracts? / There is no special requirement regarding the types of the contracts if the Law regulations are kept. They can be labour or civil ones as per the applicant’s choice
20 / In case of Simple Projects, do I have to delete the whole point 2 of the section 2 in the Application form, where the information about the cross- border Applicant has to be presented? / No, you should not delete anything in the Application form. Leave the above mentioned point 2 blank.
21 / Does the co- financing need to be proved in a certain way? For example: Is it necessary for the co- financing to be backed by a letter for support by the Municipality or by some other kind of document? / No, You don’t need to testify your own co-financing with any documents at the time of the application. If you project is approved for funding then during the implementation phase you should prove with the relevant documents that you have really funded certain activities within the declared in the application own contribution.
22 / Which country has to be pointed out as territory for carrying out project activities (page 3 of the Application form, point 1.2 Location), when the project is Complementary and envisages cultural exchange, including Applicant’s actions on both sides of the border? / Point 1.2 is entitled “Location/s and it is accompanied by an explanation: “Country/s, Region/s, Town/s”. This means that you will have to describe all places where actions are foreseen.
23 / Can associated Partners from Bulgaria participate in the project? / Yes, they can. The associated partners should be described in the Application form in the part Methodology, where information and justification about the participation of the partners in the project should be presented. They should not be described in the second part – description of the organisation and partners, and their costs cannot be included in the budget. Their involvement cannot be funded from the project.
24 / In the Guidelines for Applicants, there is a sentence in the end of point 2.2.1 that the supporting documents have to be originals or notary certified. Is this requirement valid to all of the documents? / Opposite each document in the Guidelines for Applicants there is a detailed description of the way the document should be presented – original or notary certified copy, as well as the type of the translation – faithful or legalised.
25 / Can a school in the eligible area, which according to the Law of Education and Science, clause 4 is a legal entity, but which doesn’t have its own bank account and therefore its financial service is done by the Ministry of Education and Science, apply for a grant under the JSPF – 2004? / Yes, it can only if it has all those registration any legal entity has, including separate TAX number and BULSTAT.
26 / The project team leader lives in a town outside of the eligible area. He/she will have to travel two or three times a week to the place, where the project activities are foreseen to be implemented. This place is about 60-65km away from that town. Due to the lack of convenient public transport he will have to travel in his own car. In which budget item and how should the costs for the travel be presented? / In case the project leader is from another place and he is supposed to travel to the place, where the project activities are planned to take place, he will have to cover the travel costs at his/her own expense. They cannot be included separately in the budget. They can be foreseen when his fee for the work is decided.
27 / Which of the supporting documents should have a legalised translation in English and which should have a faithful translation? Can the faithful translation be done by an English teacher, who teaches English in our school? / Alongside with the submission of your Project Proposal for a grant under the present Call for Proposals, you should enclose 5 supporting documents, from which only the School statute should have been translated by an authorised firm for legalised translation. As for the copy of the TAX registration, the requirement for its translation is to be a faithful one and it can be done by any teacher of English that owns a Diploma of higher education.
28 / Can the supporting documents of the Serbian Partner be legalised or translated in Bulgaria as there is no such a specialised agency in his town in Serbia? / The legalised translation of the supporting documents as well as the faithful translation can be done anywhere such agency exists. However, it will probably be more difficult to do this in Bulgaria, as it has to be translated from Serbian into English. Advise your partner to do that in the nearest Town/City in Serbia where such service exists