Guidelines on the preparation of cost statements and summary cost statements for Consortium Co-ordinators

The Project Co-ordinator has to make sure that the Cost Statements submitted by all of the contractors (=contractors & associated contractors) have been established according to the rules of the contract and the Annex II to the contract (part. C: art 18 - 24 & part D) - which have been tentatively summarised below -  before sending them to the Commission.

The purpose of this document is to remind you and the other participants of the basic principles with respect  to the Financial Management and the presentation of the cost claims:

General:

•	do not send individual cost claims directly to the Commission. A full batch of all participants that incurred costs in a given reporting period should be sent in. The co-ordinating contractor is to serve as collector. He must check consistency with budget and monthly management report and only when the set is complete he will send in the claims to the Commission . "The Commission reserves the right to withhold part, or exceptionally all, of ist payment for the Project until the next financial reporting period " (art. 21.3 of Annex II).
•	Co-ordinating contractor should fill out the "Summary Cost Statement Co-ordinator/Nominated Person (ECU)" using the layout of Part D of Annex II. All participants that incurred costs are listed on this form. Furhermore, per participant the total requested amount both in national currency and in ECU and the refunding percentage should be mentioned. Those participants that did not incur costs are mentioned as well, only the total requested would be "0".
•	Cost claims should be submitted using the layout of Part D of Annex II, (Summary page + the 3 pages with detailed information)
•	mention the participant code on the summary page of each cost claim submitted. Participant code is specified on the Form A3 of the Project Programme (= new name for Technical Annex of former Programme).
•	all costs shall be expressed, in local currency and in ECU (in accordance with art. 21.2 contract)
•	Please urge your contractors and associates to use the refunding percentages as mentioned on the Form A.2 "Summary Information Sheet" of the Project Programme; this will help you as a co-ordinating contractor to distribute the money impartially and it will prevent you to deal with problematic situations at the end of the project.
•	both signatures of Technical Manager and Financial Officer arc required.
•	3 original copies arc required and should be submitted to the Commission. signed and dated
•	Since the Commission (and/or the European court of auditors) may come at any time to check on financial details. supportive documents should be kept available by the contractors to justify the different items reported.
•	To help the co-ordinating contractor to evaluate the above points. a "Cost Claim Conformity Check"-list is to be filled out and joined to the batch of cost claims that are sent. Please fill it out, sign it and date it