New Széchenyi Plan

Details

Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 09:30

“It’s all up to us; it’s just a matter of will!”

(István Széchenyi)

NEW DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The strength of any nation is a complex that comprises he country's intellectual and economic powers.  In order to make Hungary a leading power in the region again, it is essential to retain existing jobs and create new ones.

Long-term economic growth can only be achieved through the permanent protection of the Hungarian SME’s interests and the promotion of their growth.

Hungary’s membership in the European Union allows it to utilise significant resources with a view to serving its national interests in a simple, swift, efficient and transparent manner to the benefit of all people.

In contrast to the previous wasteful, awkward and obscure system, the Government of National Co-operation intends to distribute the resources in the frameworks of new, significantly simpler and flexible development policies that can meet the needs and expectations of the citizens.

The guarantee of success for the New Széchenyi Plan lies in the fact that underlying the changes implemented within the grant scheme is the common knowledge and specific recommendations that have been expressed in recent months during public consultation. One of the most important conclusions of the public consultation was that ideas and recommendations have surfaced that can help distribute resources among Hungarian enterprises through a new and simple tendering system and order of procedure with shorter evaluation times and payment deadlines, in observation of the interests of SMEs to finance their development.

Encompassing the entire country, the work done in recent months has yielded great results, and this has enabled us to make sweeping changes at all three levels of distribution and utilisation of the funds allocated by the European Union.  Changes affect the entire institutional and legislative environment as well as the tendering procedure.

STREAMLINING

One of the main conclusions drawn from the public consultation is that applicants expect the Government of National Co-operation to implement streamlining changes in the system.

Electronic submission

So far, the required size of the applications has placed a nearly intolerable burden on SMEs. Sometimes several hundred printed pages were required for the submission of very simple tenders.

In the future the opportunity will be created for the exclusively electronic submission of applications (on CDs), thus they will be easier to manage and survey by the applicant as well as the jury.

Shorter forms

The previously used calls for tenders were unclear, improperly arranged, difficult to process for reasons of their structure and size, and nearly incomprehensible for the applicants. The procedure was characterised by the requirement of unnecessary information, numerous attachments and supporting documents.

Now a standard application form easier to manage has been introduced. The previously used superfluous form comprised 30 to 40 pages, and contained up to 700 fields to complete.

In the new tender system the forms are reduced to one fifth of their original size, i.e. maximum 8 pages and 150 data fields.

Simpler statements

While previously applicants were required to make as many as 60 to 70 statements, in the future a single page will be sufficient.

Instead of writing various statements, a simple X in the box included in the form will be sufficient for assuming commitments to comply with Hungarian and EU requirements for the purposes of application submission. The number of appendices has been cut from thirty to ten.

Faster procedures and payments

The new regulation introduces numerous simplifications and increases the efficiency of administration. Of all changes, streamlined and faster discrepancy resolution is worth mentioning. From now on, no application can be refused for exclusively formal reasons. Thus there is no more playing for time by repeatedly requesting missing documents. The content and structure of reports on the implementation of the commitments undertaken in the applications will also be simpler. Reports will be required only for the purpose of disbursement. The complete system of deadlines will be revised.

The Government will accelerate disbursement of the grants awarded. The longest time allowed for disbursement will drop from 60 days on average to 45 days. This makes the tender system easier to plan, faster and more efficient.

Shorter evaluation times, automatic assessment

In the new system the two-round tender procedure applied so far is abandoned and the basis is a single-round selection procedure, faster and simpler than previously. The Government has increased the number of tender invitations in which applicants are given evaluations exclusively based on their compliance with the project selection criteria, without further deliberation, to replace the previous lengthy and incomprehensible judgment procedure. In other words, applications that meet the pre-set objective considerations may be awarded without any further evaluation.

Carefully considered tenders focusing on development objectives

Previously, due to the fact that the number of schemes amounted to several thousands, tender invitations were highly fragmented and unpredictable in the short and long term alike. Based on the experiences of the public consultation, the Government has drafted development objectives that simultaneously serve the implementation of common and personal endeavours. This is done in a way that tender invitations are announced in line with the set project objectives for longer periods of time, and applications can be submitted until funds are available. Applicants can now submit well prepared and thoroughly considered applications as the use of project grants is more predictable.

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