Who is responsible for what?
This taken directly from the Grant agreement:
The internal roles and responsibilities of the beneficiaries are divided as follows:
(a) Each beneficiary must:
- (i) keep information stored in the Participant Portal Beneficiary Register
- (ii) inform the coordinator immediately of any events or circumstances likely to affect significantly or delay the implementation of the action
- (iii) submit to the coordinator in good time:
- individual financial statements for itself [and its linked third parties] and, if required, certificates on the financial statements
- the data needed to draw up the technical reports
- ethics committee opinions and notifications or authorisations for activities raising ethical issues
- any other documents or information required by the Commission
(b) The coordinator must:
- (i) monitor that the action is implemented properly
- (ii) act as the intermediary for all communications between the beneficiaries and the Commission
- (iii) request and review any documents or information required by the Commission and verify their completeness and correctness before passing them on to the Commission
- (iv) submit the deliverables and reports to the Commission
- (v) ensure that all payments are made to the other beneficiaries without unjustified delay
- (vi) inform the Commission of the amounts paid to each beneficiary, when required under the Agreement or requested by the Commission
The coordinator has no extra rights, only extra obligation toward the Commission. It is worth noticing that each partner is directly responsible towards the Commission and cannot “hide” behind the Coordinator. The Coordinator has no superior responsibility for the quality of the work other than its “correctness.”
Regarding the work:
The beneficiaries have full responsibility for implementing the action and complying with the Agreement.
The beneficiaries are jointly and severally liable for the technical implementation of the action as described in Annex 1. If a beneficiary fails to implement its part of the action, the other beneficiaries become responsible for implementing this part.