CIBR Blog

 
 Source: mdlpl and cibr (Belgian Romanian Real Estate Chamber)
 

For those who wish to use the structural and cohesion funds, but don’t have the time or the expert’s opinion necessary for this, a solution might be to hire a consultant or a consulting company in the field. The consultant might be involved in the project to a larger or smaller extent – in other words, he can assume only a part of the activities or can accomplish the entire project. The alternative solution is an « interim manager ».

 
« More than a simple drawing up of the project »
 
So as to find the best consultant, the financing solicitor should use a set of questions and criteria.
 
1. The first question
 
The first question should aim at the necessity or usefulness of hiring a consultant: “Do I really need a consultant? What can a consultant offer me or what should he be able to offer me in the domain of structural and cohesion funds?”
 
The complex and consistent documentation for the drawing up of the projects (the financing request, studies, analyses, permits, certificates etc.) as well as the restrictive procedures for using the money (for example, the public acquisition procedures) determine the necessity of consulting for the majority of the projects financed from structural and cohesion funds. Even the financing solicitors who have experience in the solicitation and administration of pre-adherence funds can resort to consulting so as to increase their chances of success.
 
The great majority of the consultants I have met talk about the so-called “drawing up of the project”. In the case of structural and cohesion funds, it is more than that, consulting being a serious and complex activity. A consultant should be able to help not only the financing solicitors but also the financing beneficiaries (note: see the term dictionary on this page).
 
So, the most important activities a consultant should take care of are the following:
 

• The analysis of the organisation’s needs and the decision concerning the opportunity for using the Structural and Cohesion Funds
• Identifying the possible projects and the financing sources for these projects
• Filling in the financing request and its annexes, drawing up the studies and the other support documents
• Assessing the financing chances of the financing solicitor’s projects
• Drawing up and assisting the deployment of the procedures for public acquisition in the project
• Preparing the financial and narrative reports as well as the monitoring visits, assessment and audit which the authorities can perform on the beneficiary
• Ensuring the juridical and technical support for the management of the contract for supply of goods, carrying out of services or execution of works, which the financing beneficiary signs with third parties in a project
• Supporting the relation of the financing beneficiary with the public authorities. Ideally, a consultant or a consulting company should be able to ensure all that pertains to the drawing up of the documentation and implementation of a project, including the team for the project, where the rules allow it.

 
« Experience is not enough »
 
2. The second question
 
The second question aims at the basic criteria for choosing a consultant: “How much will a certain consultant cost me compared to what he has to offer?” Most often, I have seen financing solicitors who were ready to hire a consultant only by bearing in mind the previous experience for different financing categories. In the case of structural and cohesion funds, this criterion is insufficient. The complexity degree of the projects has increased a lot compared to those financed from pre-adherence funds. (PHARE, SAPARD).
 
Apart from experience, those interested should also bear in mind and observe other elements:
 

• If alternative solutions are given to him, or on the contrary, they are told that, for a certain project, one can act only in a certain way when they are told about the implications of the project, including the risks which might appear during its deployment, and not only about the percents the consultant wants.
• If they are given “completed” projects, where the consultant also deals with the drawing up and implementation or they are given only the drawing up of some parts of the project.

 
The financing solicitor must compare all these with the costs.

It is recommended that more offers be consulted. Taking into account the complexity of the projects financed from structural and cohesion funds, there will be many situations when the consultants will act in a network or consortium, so as to cover more easily and more efficiently the entire problem of a project.
 
It is a positive thing, and those interested by the financing should also take into account this option.
 
“Differentiation criteria.”
 
3. The third question
 
The third question refers to choosing among the consultants who offer the same services at similar prices: “How do I differentiate the consultants?”
 
When you have the possibility of choosing between consultants, you can use additional criteria by asking questions such as:
 

• What risks is the consultant taking with respect to the success of the project: will he accept to not be paid in case the project is not financed or in case the financing beneficiary doesn’t receive all the money from the authorities, pursuant to an error of the consultant?
• The Consultant asks to be paid in advance or after the financing is obtained, respectively after the activities he assumed were accomplished?
• Instead of conclusions: so as to have a better image of what can be done in his project, at what costs and at what quality level, a financing solicitor should discuss previously with at least three consultants/consulting companies.

 
What else you should know:

• There are no specific regulations for the consulting companies in the domain of Structural and Cohesion Funds
• There is no certification system for the consultants by the management authorities/ intermediary bodies nor institutions which could perform this certification
• There are no lists of consultants “approved” by the management authorities/intermediary bodies
• There are no black lists with the consultants who haven’t properly done their work. At SAPARD (www.sapard.ro) there is a list of the contractors who have not observed the contractual terms, the most suitable information source so as to find the consultants remains the recommendation of the financing beneficiaries. The internet can also be used, with the condition that it be doubled by a realistic analysis of the respective consultant.
• a consultant, generally demands the coverage of the following costs: drawing up fixed costs and/or for the implementation of the project and variable costs (success commission). The latter represent a percentage (between 1% and 15%) of the value of the reimbursable financing received from the beneficiary and not of the value of the project.

 
4. Alternative Solutions
 
You can also hire an experienced « interim manager » and form the team with his help. The team and the external experts/consultants will be hired by the « interim manager ».
 
Often the « interim manager » has experience with respect to structural and cohesion funds in different countries. « Interim mangers » are good strategists in the financial domain and business plans accepted by the banks.
 
 
Dipl. ir. Freddy M.E. Jacobs
PBS Worldwide
frjacobs@pandora.be
0478/331.799
 
WWW.PBSWORLDWIDE.COM

 
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