The procedure of the submitting and examining of applications for a grant to be provided for a project from EcoFund’s resources is shown in the schematic diagram presented in Fig. 1. As a rule, the procedure is carried out in two stages.

At the first stage, a “Project Questionnaire” prepared by filling-in a standard form (that can be obtained from the EcoFund Office or downloaded from EcoFund’s web site) is submitted to the EcoFund address. The Project Questionnaire should provide complete and reliable information that would be necessary for the EcoFund Board to take a decision whether the project proposed is consistent with any of the EcoFund’s priorities specified in Section III of these Principles. At this stage, particularly important is a brief project description with the specification of the project costs, pointing out of the anticipated environmental benefits, and indication of all the project financing sources planned by the Applicant. The submission of a Project Questionnaire is not required in the case of projects entered for competitions or proposed for the “fast path” of the awarding of grants.

In the case that an accepting decision is taken, the EcoFund Board sends the Applicant an invitation to submit a “Grant Application.” The said invitation does not mean any EcoFund’s commitment to provide any financial support for the project. It only gives grounds for the submission of the Application, which should be prepared in accordance with the “Instructions for the Preparation of an Application” available from the EcoFund Office or EcoFund’s web site. The Application should provide clear-cut information about:

– Objectives of the project proposed (with a project justification);

– Technologies applied (or proposed) and/or project organization methods;

– Anticipated environmental benefits to be gained in result of the project;

– Contractors and/or suppliers selected or proposed and the contractor/supplier selection methods adopted;

– Material and financial schedule of project implementation, with the financing sources having been specified;

– Economic analysis of the project, showing that the financial liquidity of the project will be maintained both at the project implementation and operation stage (i.e. before and after the project completion).

 

The Application must also be supplemented with a number of appendices (specified and described in the Instructions), such as:

– “Feasibility study” or “business plan” of the project;

– Source documentation related to the economic, financial, and tendering issues;

– All the permits as required by law for the project implementation and operation.

It is important, moreover, that the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project (if required by law) and all the available experts’ opinions and reviews concerning the project should be presented together with the Application. Only complete Applications prepared in accordance with the “Instructions for the Preparation of an Application” will be accepted by EcoFund for appraisal.

The Application submitted is examined and appraised by EcoFund specialists and, in some cases, by external experts working to EcoFund’s commission. Three aspects of the project are subject to assessment, i.e. the technological, ecological, and economic/financial issues. In result of the cooperation between the Applicant, EcoFund specialists, and other experts, the Application may be modified and supplemented according to EcoFund’s requirements.

When a positive result is obtained from such an analysis, the EcoFund Board approves the Application and presents it at an EcoFund Council meeting. Pursuant to EcoFund’s Statutes, the Council takes a final decision on the awarding of the grant, on the grant amount, and on the grant-awarding terms. The form and amount of the grant awarded may differ from that proposed by the Applicant. The Council may also formulate additional grant-awarding conditions.

Apart from the examining of Applications submitted to EcoFund individually, the Foundation organizes a number of competitions, where prizes are awarded in the form of significant financial support for the implementation of the projects planned. The ways and required time of the entering of projects for a specific competition are precisely specified in the competition rules published in the press and available from the EcoFund Office and the EcoFund’s web site. For projects entered for a competition, the submission of a Project Questionnaire is not required.

EcoFund examines both the Project Questionnaires and Grant Applications as they are received all year round. The Foundation should reply to a Project Questionnaire within four weeks. A positive reply, being simultaneously an invitation to submit an Application, is valid for three months. Applicant’s failure to submit the application within this time is understood as abandonment of the applying for an EcoFund grant.

The EcoFund Council’s grant-awarding decision is valid for six months. Within this time, a Grant Agreement should be signed between the Applicant and EcoFund. During this period, negotiations are carried out by the EcoFund Board with the Applicant on the tenor of the Grant Agreement. The Agreement stipulates the basic rights and obligations of the Foundation and the Grantee.

The grant is awarded for precisely specified investment tasks, with particular stress being put to the purchasing of modern technologies from the USA, Switzerland, Norway and/or European Union Countries.

It is required that accounts for particular project tasks should be cleared in stages according to the schedule of completion of the corresponding project stages. The division of a project into separate project implementation stages is important not only in financial terms (the grant is paid in a number of tranches and the Applicant accounts for using each of those tranches separately) but also for technical and organizational reasons. Every project part specified as a separate project stage in the project implementation schedule should be related to the completion of making or building a specific facility or device that is subject to a technical acceptance procedure.

In the financing of a project in the part covered by an EcoFund grant, advance payments of the grant money may be allowed. For undertakings other than nature-related projects, the awarding of an advance payment and the determining of the amount to be paid in advance may only be based on the provisions of the contracts signed between the Grantee and the supplier of equipment financed from the EcoFund grant.

During the negotiations, EcoFund attaches particular importance to the correct preparation and mutual acceptance of the following Appendices to the Agreement:

Appendix No. 1, which includes the basic data on the entire project, its objectives, and anticipated environmental benefits, as well as the project implementation schedule, costs, and financing sources;

Appendix No. 2, i.e. the “EcoFund-Financed Procurement Plan”, which includes a list of the tasks, with specifying individual material parts thereof, and a list of the contractors/suppliers, with specifying the contractor/supplier selection methods;

Appendix No. 3, where the individual project implementation stages and the grant payment schedule are defined.

It is a condition precedent to the signing of a Grant Agreement that documentary evidence must be submitted to EcoFund to confirm the availability of all the project financing sources specified in Appendix No. 1 to the Agreement and to show that all the formal and legal requirements related to the project implementation are met.

During the negotiations, the material scope of the project part covered by the EcoFund grant is more precisely specified (in comparison with the data provided in the Application). The details given in the list of tasks covered by Appendices Nos. 2 and 3 should correspond to the material scope of the invoices to be presented to EcoFund when accounting for the grant funds spent for supplies and/or services. The following rules must be complied with at the same time:

1. Basically, EcoFund covers the costs of supplies and services provided after the Grant Agreement signing date. For any departure from this rule, an approving decision of the EcoFund Board is required in each specific case.

2. The EcoFund grant money must not be used to cover the costs incurred by the Grantee or the General Project Contractor for such tasks as: preparation of technical documentation, construction of auxiliary facilities, carrying out of Investor’s supervision and project coordination work, making of fencing, lighting, green, or telephone network, process start-up, or carrying out of cleaning and tidying-up work, as well as the Grantee’s personal payroll and administrative costs (except for such costs borne by ecological NGOs), related to the project implementation. For any departure from this rule, EcoFund Board’s accepting decision is required in each specific case. The EcoFund grant money must not be used for the paying of taxes or other charges related to the project implementation.

 

3. In material terms, the EcoFund grant money may only be used to cover the costs of the construction and equipping of the basic technical facilities of the project and the costs of the devices necessary for the operation of the basic facilities (e.g. power supply installations). As an example, the following facilities may be understood as falling within this category:

– Facilities represented in the process diagram of a gaseous emissions reduction system;

– Basic process facilities of a sewage treatment plant, component parts of a sewage sludge processing and disposal system, and sewage and sludge transport facilities;

– Facilities and work related to the restoring of natural conditions in areas of high natural value or helping to correctly manage the areas of this kind.

If the Agreement is not signed within six months from the day of taking the grant-awarding decision, the said decision will expire. On Grantee’s request, when reasonable, the EcoFund Board may extend the decision validity period for up to the next six months.

VI. REQUIREMENTS TO BE MET WHEN SUPPLIERS AND/OR CONTRACTORS ARE SELECTED BY THE GRANTEE

EcoFund attaches particular importance to the quality of the proposed solutions, which should correspond to the present-day environmental protection technologies, and to the promotion of the most effective methods of using the funds available through disbursing the funds in a way that would be as objective and clear as possible. For these requirements to be met, suppliers and/or contractors should be selected by tenders with applying appropriate tendering procedures run in compliance with the Public Procurement Law Act of January 29, 2004 (consolidated text published in Dz. U. of 2007, No. 223, item 1655). The Applicant/Grantee must observe these requirements with respect to the project part that is financed from the EcoFund grant, if such a task may be subject to a separate tendering procedure. If the separation of such a task is impracticable, the entire project should be implemented in compliance with the procedures and requirements laid down in the Public Procurement Law. The responsibility for the correct preparation and carrying out of the tendering procedure is borne by the Grantee with whom EcoFund has signed or is to sign the relevant Grant Agreement.

EcoFund will check how the Grantee fulfils the above requirements.

If the Grantee has selected suppliers and/or contractors before the Application is submitted to EcoFund, then the method and result of the selection of the suppliers and/or contractors will be taken into account by the Foundation when taking a grant-awarding decision providing that, in principle, the rules of free competition and equal treatment of bidders have been observed. To prove that this requirement has been met, the Applicant shall be obliged to supplement the Grant Application with a certified true copy of the Important Order Specifications or an equivalent document, a document to define the procurement notice publishing procedure actually carried out, and a record of the contractor and/or supplier selection procedure with a summarized list of the tenders submitted.

If, however, the suppliers and/or contractors are to be selected after the submission of the Grant Application to EcoFund, then the Grantee shall be obliged to cooperate with EcoFund within the scope of the preparation and carrying out of the procurement procedures.

If the procurement notice is published in the Polish national press, Public Procurement Bulletin, or Official Journal of the European Union, then the Grantee shall be obliged to consult EcoFund with respect to the following documents and materials before the documents or materials are published or revealed:

· Draft procurement notice;

· Draft Important Order Specifications.

The Important Order Specifications should include the following information on the EcoFund grant offering terms: “The Orderer requires that the Tenderer, when carrying out the order part financed by EcoFund, should use supplies or services provided by companies from the USA, Switzerland, Norway, and/or European Union Countries.”

Moreover, EcoFund requires that it should be informed (at least one month ahead of time) about the planned scope and schedule of the publishing of procurement notices concerning the tasks to be carried out within the project. For this requirement to be fulfilled, the following summary form should be filled in and e-mailed to EcoFund:

The Grantee shall observe the time limits for the submission of tenders as specified in the Public Procurement Law Act and a shortening of these time limits may only be allowed in the circumstances as defined in this Act and at EcoFund’s consent.

After the procurement procedure is completed, the Grantee shall be obliged to submit to EcoFund certified true copies of the Important Order Specifications and of the record of the procurement procedure with a summarized list of the tenders submitted.

To clear accounts with EcoFund for the supplies of products, the Grantee will be required to provide a commodity origin certificate or a producer’s declaration about the product manufacturing place.

The EcoFund Foundation, like the EBRD, has adopted a principle that the Grantees as well as their Partners and Contracting Parties (i.e. suppliers, contractors, bidders, etc.) shall observe the highest ethical standards when obtaining grants and implementing the projects subsidized by the Foundation. EcoFund shall exclude a specific entity from among those having the right to use Foundation’s financial resources in the cases that the grant used by it has been obtained in result of an action that might be described as:

– Fraudulent act, i.e. untrue presentation of facts in the process of applying for a grant and implementing of the subsidized project, committed to affect the procurement or project implementation procedure, inclusive of intentional activities conducted among bidders to deprive the orderers and bidders of the benefits that might arise from free and open competition;

– Corruption, i.e. offering of, giving of, taking of, or soliciting for, something valuable to affect decisions of public or corporate administration, or threatening to cause damage to a person, property, or reputation in connection with the applying for a grant, procurement procedure, or implementation of the subsidized project.

All the EcoFund’s liabilities towards the Grantee become effective at the time of the signing of the relevant Grant Agreement and are governed by the said Agreement.

During the project implementation process, EcoFund, in co-operation with the Grantee, inspects the project with regard to the following aspects:

a) Conformity of the material scope of the project with the material and financial plan (project implementation schedule);

b) Reasonability of the expenses incurred and conformity of the use of the grant money with the provisions of the Grant Agreement;

c) The actual environmental benefits gained after the whole project is completed.

In the course of a specific stage of the project implementation process, the Foundation may pay the grant money on the grounds of invoices to cover the costs of the purchasing of equipment and services obviously related to the carrying out of the project stage involved, within the grant amounts awarded for the said project stage.

The documents to be produced by the Grantee to settle accounts with EcoFund for each project stage and each tranche of the grant awarded should include:

1. Summarized report of the completion of the tasks planned for the specific project stage, prepared in the form as required by EcoFund;

2. Copy of the act of technical acceptance of the project stage, approved by the Grantee and the Supervising Inspector, or, in the case that particular jobs completed within the project stage were subjected to separate acceptance procedures, a complete set of the technical acceptance acts drawn up for all the acceptance procedures carried out;

In the case of a non-investment nature-related project, the Grantee shall be obliged to submit a detailed report of the work carried out and the costs incurred as well as the relevant acceptance acts.

3. Tabularized list of the project implementation costs covered from the EcoFund grant money, prepared in the form as shown below and confirmed by the Grantee:

4. Complete set of the invoices (with copies) that have been specified in the table as above, confirmed by the Grantee in formal and technical terms as eligible for financing from the EcoFund grant money.

The account settlement procedure for a specific project stage will be considered as completed when the Foundation accepts the work completion report and the financial report of the clearing of accounts, presented by the Grantee and covering this project stage. In the case of large and technically complicated projects, the Foundation may commission an expert to assess whether the project has been correctly carried out.

Apart from thoroughly auditing the spending of the grant money awarded, the Foundation will also examine the course of the implementing and financing of the whole project, inclusive of the project financing from other funding sources. Serious departures from the time schedule, material scope, and cash flows stipulated in the Agreement may finally cause the payment of the grant funds to be stopped or the Agreement to be dissolved by the Foundation.

EcoFund, represented by Members of the EcoFund Council and EcoFund Board as well as EcoFund Office staff members and consultants working to EcoFund’s commission, will visit the project site and carry out field inspections of the project co-financed by the Foundation. The purpose of the inspections is to ascertain the progress in the project implementation, to clarify problems, if any, and to examine any incorrect developments if occurred in the project implementation process. The EcoFund’s right to inspect the project should be guaranteed in the contracts concluded between the Grantee and the Representing Investor, the Contractor, or any other unit of similar nature.

The Grantee shall be obliged to immediately inform EcoFund about any facts or events that might affect the process of carrying out the Agreement with the Foundation, such as:

– Change of the Grantee’s name, seat, bank, or bank account;

– Important change in the Grantee’s legal or economic situation (e.g. resulting from ownership transformation, imminent bankruptcy, etc.);

– Plans to change the major contractors or suppliers;

– Occurrence of unexpected circumstances or technical, organizational, or economic difficulties that might be important for the project implementation process.

In the case of significant changes in the conditions of implementing a project financially supported by the Foundation, there is a possibility to renegotiate the Agreement (and its Appendices), e.g. with respect to the project implementation schedule or, exceptionally, to the material scope of the project, if this is justified by a reasonable expectation of significant improvement in environmental benefits. The said changes, however, must not cause any additional financial consequences for the Foundation. Any increase in the project cost, regardless of the reasons, cannot affect the amount of the grant awarded.

Any modifications to the Agreement may be proposed to, and agreed upon with, the Foundation (in the form of an Annex to the Agreement) exclusively before the elapsing of the scheduled time of clearing accounts for the project stage involved. A failure to meet this requirement will result in the imposing of a stipulated penalty, which will be subtracted from the grant amount to be paid.

The Foundation reserves the right to dissolve the Agreement with immediate effect if it is proven that the Grantee uses the EcoFund grant for purposes other than those stipulated in the Agreement or fails to carry out the work in the scheduled time or with due diligence.

If it is found after the project is completed and the accounts for the grant are cleared that the Grantee used the grant money wholly or in a part in a way that was contrary to the Agreement, then the Grantee shall be obliged to return the improperly used amounts plus the benefits lost by the Foundation as the interest that would otherwise accrue on these amounts in the bank account and, in addition to that, to pay a stipulated penalty equal to 25% of the improperly used amount of the grant.

Simultaneously with the clearing of accounts for the project stage preceding the completion of the financing of the project from the grant money (or, in the case of single-stage projects, at least one month before the project completion date), the Grantee shall be obliged to arrange with EcoFund the date of a project completion ceremony. The Grantee shall also be obliged to place a board with information about the EcoFund’s financial support on the facilities built within the project and to impart this information to the mass media.

As a prerequisite condition for the project implementation process to be finally completed and closed, the Grantee should present:

1. General report of the whole project implementation process, covering both the technical and financial aspects;

2. Project commissioning and technical acceptance act;

3. Report on the actual performance characteristics of the project facilities and on the actual environmental benefits gained in result of the project or related to it, together with a report made out by appropriate functions or organs responsible for the approval of the project facilities for service; if it is justified by technical reasons or if the time of completion of the project part financed by EcoFund is different than that of the project as a whole then the aforementioned reports should be submitted to the Foundation in time as stipulated in the Agreement.

EcoFund will maintain further contacts with the Grantee after the project is completed and the Agreement is closed to monitor the actual environmental benefits gained in result of the project having been financially supported by the Foundation as well as the actual investment outlays and the costs of operation of the project facilities.

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