Background to the complaint

1. On 31 January 2011, the complainant, an Italian NGO, and the European Commission signed a Grant Agreement under the Daphne^[1] Funding Programme. On 16 June 2011, the Commission made a pre-financing payment to the complainant.

2. On 28 October 2016, as a result of an audit carried out on the complainant’s premises, the auditors issued a report in which they found that the complainant had declared no interest on the pre‐financing. However, the audit had confirmed that the pre-financing had been received on a “current interest bearing‐account”. As the co‐ordinator had refused to provide the calculation, the auditors made an estimate calculation which resulted in non‐reported interests of EUR 3 350.46.

3. On 17 November 2016, the Commission sent to the complainant the final audit report and the calculation of the final grant. As it turned out that the calculation contained a mistake, on 20 December 2016, the Commission sent a corrected calculation to the complainant together with a debit note asking it to reimburse to the Commission a total amount of EUR 8 748.78^[2]. The complainant did not receive the above letters, as they had been sent to its previous postal address.

4. On 9 January 2017, the Commission sent a copy of the letter of 20 December 2016 and of the debit note to the complainant by e-mail, informing it that there had been an issue with the previous postal sending.

5. On 24 February 2017, following an exchange of correspondence between the Commission and the complainant, in which the latter enquired about the calculation made and contested the final amount to recover^[3], the Commission confirmed its intention to recover EUR 8 748.78. The complainant subsequently paid that amount of money to the Commission but disagreed with the recovery of the interests.

6. On 24 September 2018, the complainant lodged its complaint with the European Ombudsman.

The inquiry

7. The Ombudsman opened an inquiry into the issue that the Commission (i) wrongly calculated the interests on the pre‐financed amount, and it (ii) did not give the complainant a possibility to express its views before the issuance of the debit note.

8. In the course of the inquiry, the Ombudsman received the reply of the Commission and, subsequently, the comments of the complainant in response to the Commission's reply.

The calculation of the interests and failure to give the complainant a possibility to express its views before the issuance of the debit note

Arguments presented to the Ombudsman

9. The complainant argued that the calculation made by the Commission did not take into account the fact that it had used the pre-financing payment to implement the project. The complainant did thus not accrue the interests claimed by the Commission, as the money was not on its bank account for the entire duration of the project.

10. In its reply, the Commission clarified that it had sent the debit note together with the final audit report as it had understood that the complainant had agreed with the findings of the auditors. For the same reason, the Commission did not review the calculation of the interests.

11. However, following the complaint made to the Ombudsman, the Commission said that it had reopened the case and recognised that the complainant had the right to comment on the pre-information letter. As a result, it acknowledged that the complainant’s arguments made in its e-mail of 19 January 2017 should have been taken into account.

12. The Commission concluded that the complainant is entitled to the reimbursement of the contested amount of money, that is, EUR 3 350.46.

13. In its comments, the complainant expressed its satisfaction with the Commission’s decision to reimburse it the money.

The Ombudsman's assessment

14. Given that the complainant is satisfied with the Commission’s decision, the case is closed as settled.

Conclusion

Based on the inquiry, the Ombudsman closes this case with the following conclusion:

The Commission has settled the complaint.

The complainant and the Commission will be informed of this decision.

 

Marta Hirsch-Ziembińska

Head of Inquiries and ICT - Unit 1

Strasbourg, 20/02/2019

 

^[1] Further information on the programme is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants1/programmes-2007-2013/daphne/index_en.htm.

^[2] This amount included the interests of EUR 3 350.46.

^[3] This included an e-mail sent by the complainant to the Commission 19 January 2017, in which the complainant had expressed its detailed arguments.