Summery Sheet

Title:
Capacity building of the Moldovan Agency for Intervention and Payment in Agriculture (AIPA) for the application of EU norms and standards for the administration of ARD support schemes
Twinning Project Number: MD 14 ENI AG 01 16

Beneficiary Institution:
Agency of Intervention and Payments for Agriculture (AIPA) in Moldova

Member States:
Austria in cooperation with Czech Republic and Poland

Member State Institutions:
Agrarmarkt Austria in cooperation with
the State Agriculture Intervention Fund (SZIF) and
the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA)

Project Start: 07.12.2016

Project duration: 24 month

Budget: 1,200,000 EUR

Estimated Short Term Expert Input: 575 working days

MS Project Leader:
Rudolf Moser
Senior Expert of Agrarmarkt Austria
Contact: ic@ama.gv.at

RTA:
Sonja Schalud
Unit of International Cooperation of Agrarmarkt Austria
Contact: twinning.aipa@gmail.com

Overall project objective:
To support the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry in improving its financial capability and governance to implement the Agriculture and Rural Development policy objectives

Project purpose:
Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Agency for Intervention and Payment in Agriculture to administer Agriculture and Rural development support measures in line with EU norms and standards
 
Component I - Result 1 “New organisational structure and legal basis for AIPA in line with EU requirements”
  • Kick-off
  • Seminar for high political level held
  • Closing Event are organised and held
  • Project quality assurance
  • Legal basis for the implementation of all Paying Agency functions following the existing EU requirements drafted
  • Organisational structure and chart of AIPA, taking into account EU requirements and best practice such as the separation of functions and segregation of duties designed
  • Approved human resource strategy for AIPA (incl. staff planning, recruitment, training and appraisal) elaborated
  • Job descriptions for all AIPA staff prepared
  • ICT strategy and security policy for AIPA (including e.g. operation and service level agreement, helpdesk, Service-desk, IT objectives, technological concept, quality management and IT organisation), including wider connections with related responsible third parties (e.g. e-Government Centre or Ministry of ICT) elaborated
  • Security measures related to the administrative, structure, staffing and technical environment of AIPA elaborated

Component II - Result 2 “Comprehensive documentation covering all the functions of AIPA”
  • Written procedures, manuals, guidelines and checklists elaborated for the implementation of approved Rural Development (RD) measures following EU principles prepared
  • Control Plans for the RD measure to ensure AIPA’s compliance with the management and control system requirements according to EU acquis elaborated
  • Training needs analysis (TNA) of the necessary skills required by AIPA for implementation of RD measures in line with EU principles designed
  • Training programme with workshops, seminars, on-the-job trainings and Study Tours for employees of AIPA, including a programme for the training of trainers (ToT) developed
  • All AIPA staff trained to carry out their tasks according to the at least 3-4 newly elaborated written procedures for Rural Development support measures in line with EU norms and standards (pre investment principle)

Component III - Result 3 “Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening"
  • AIPA´s internal audit unit strengthened to be in line with internationally accepted audit standards
  • Risk identification and management framework updated
  • Organisational performance objectives linked to the allocation of resources within AIPA elaborated/updated
  • System for the identification, handling and resolution of irregularities and fraud designed
  • System for the control and retention of documents within AIPA elaborated
  • AIPA´s payment and accounting unit strengthened to be in line with internationally accepted accounting standards
  • Participants for study visits identified and study visits conducted