ocp192_en

Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy ConditionalityHowever a joint Ministerial Decision was issued instructing fiscal audit offices to process all paymentrequests within 20 days, and set deadlines for each stage of the payment process. Within the scope ofthe on-going comprehensive re-engineering of financial management work processes, called the ERPproject, it is necessary to streamline payment processes in the short-medium term to meet the 30 daytarget. An interim solution should have the objective of removing the main bottlenecks in the currentprocess and improving efficiency. This must include changes in work practice and legislation based onthe action plan prepared by the Authorities following the provision of technical assistance. Theauthorities initiated the streamlining of the current process with the adoption of L. 4151/2013 thatshifted the entire responsibility for payment execution from tax offices (DOYs) to the fiscal auditoffices.To further monitor delays in payments and streamline payment processes, the Government will:1. Put in place a monitoring system in other than State Budget able to detect areas of noncompliancewith the deadlines set in the Late Payment Directive by using the data from theexisting commitment registers (E-Portal), starting from April data (May 2014).1662. Submit legislation to expand pre-contractual audits by the Hellenic Court of Audit (HCA)and a Presidential Decree will be issued subject to the approval of the Plenary of the HCAincreasing the threshold from the current EUR 15,000 up to EUR 45,000 for ex-ante auditscarried out by the Court of Auditors in order to reduce the volume of ex ante audit in excessof the current 70% (April 2014).3. Re-prioritize the medium-term action plan to meet the requirements of the Late PaymentDirective (April 2014).4. Implement an updated disaster recovery plan following recent changes to IT andadministrative processes (April 2014).5. Conduct a review with external technical assistance of the PIB payment processes to identifywhether they conform to the deadlines established by the Late Payment Directive and, if not,propose changes necessary to ensure that they do, and to examine whether sound financialprocesses continue to be observed following recently approved process changes The reviewwill also propose changes necessary to implement further streamlining and automation offinancial management processes. In parallel, it will streamline the procedures related to thePIB execution, as appropriate to a modern financial management of a multi-year investmentprogramme, taking into account international best practices. PIB procedures will be subjectto effective checks and balances with good design and a transition process to the improvedprocedures. The final outcome will be fully compatible with the ERP project (on-goingunder the responsibility of Ministry of Finance), ensuring, thus, an integrated monitoring ofthe whole state budget execution (June 2014).6. Conduct system audits and testing in high volume conditions (September 2014).7. After a proper testing extend the use of the Fiscal Management Information System (FMIS)to the General Directorates for Financial Services (GDFS) of the line ministries and theHCA, so that the payment process and transfer of documents could be started in an electronicmanner by GDFS and the HCA as of 1 January 2015. This includes the implementation ofnecessary IT applications by October 2014.8. To address problems with the extra-budgetary funds and in the social security sector,especially in relation to the transfer of competencies from SSFs to EOPPY, and taking intoaccount the progress in the setting-up of the commitment/co-payment registries, theGovernment will:i. Ensure that IKA transfers (including both cash transfers and expenditures made byIKA on behalf of EOPYY) to EOPYY at least 97 percent of the revenue collected byIKA on behalf of EOPYY during the relevant period (June 2014).ii.Monitor the effectiveness of the commitment registers by conducting regular targetedinspections in the public entities covered by the system (continuous);