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To designate as representative of the Development Partnership the Basque Government Labour, Justice and Social Security Department, with sufficient capacity to manage public subsidies and assume the financial and administrative obligations corresponding to management of the project and to act as an interlocutor between the DPs and the UAFSE.

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The ZABALAN DP will consist of public and private bodies, and will not have its own legal status. Incorporation to the DP is voluntary and will function on the basis of Operational Work Groups organized by province and within the framework of the Basque Autonomous Community.
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EHLABE, by way of technical secretary, will be the co-ordinating body of the partners of the Development Partnership, both with respect to actions involving the DP in general and to those affecting pilot experiences to be developed in selected geographic areas.

The mechanisms of collaboration between the participating bodies will have two different levels:

First level of co-ordination: creation of a General Assembly comprising all of the organisations belonging to the Development Partnership, in addition to the public administrations, social agents, NGOs, business organisations and public employment services.

This will establish:
- A network system for the carrying out of actions involving the DP in general, that is, the six studies described below, the general objective of which is the improvement of processes and systems for the insertion of collectives at risk of exclusion.

- A procedure on the basis of which to follow-up and evaluate the particular actions corresponding to pilot experiences in each area of implementation.

Second level of collaboration: the creation of a management body to implement the actions in each selected geographic area: Greater Bilbao, San Sebastián and its region, the Alavese Plain. Operational Work Groups will be created in these areas, to be co-ordinated in each case by the corresponding EHLABE DP partner, the main task of which will be the permanent evaluation of action and the consequent taking of decisions using a methodology based on agreement between partners of the implicated DPs.

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To effectuate the project entitled "ZABALAN", presented in response to the call for applications made by the European Social Fund for the financing of projects within the EQUAL Community Initiative Programme, via the Resolution of 22 March, Spanish Official Gazette of 17 April 2001.

This Project is documented in the report presented and adapted in compliance with the conditions established by the above-mentioned call for applications, and will be developed by means of the so-called ACTION 1, ACTION 2 and TRANSNATIONAL CO-OPERATION AGREEMENT, with their respective budgets.

The specific objectives of this project are as follows:

- To improve the ability to enter the job market of collectives which are excluded from it, including the handicapped.

- To implement pilot experiences or projects capable of leading to improvement or innovation with respect to methods of training and inserting the said collectives.

- To transfer good practice to general employment policies.

Likewise, partner bodies state that they have full knowledge of the specific content of the ensemble of actions involved in the said project, with respect to their own mission, rights and obligations, their own respective financial undertakings and those of the other members of the DP.

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In order to ensure that its actions are as efficient, effective and economic as possible, the Development Partnership will guarantee to respect the principles of publicity, transparency and the free concurrence of supply, in accordance with the characteristics of the actions anticipated, the legal status of the responsible bodies and the agreements of DP decision-making organs.

The actions of the EQUAL project to be implemented by the Development Partnership and their corresponding budgets appear in their entirety in the Project’s National Labour and Transnational Programmes. Part 2 of this Agreement contains descriptions of the DP partners, which particularly specify the main activity of each partner and their budgets.

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BODY ASSUMING MANAGEMENT CONTROL
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To designate EUDEL, the Association of Basque Municipalities, as the body responsible for the task of controlling financial management, endowing it with sufficient capacity to manage public subsidies and assume the administrative, technical and financial obligations corresponding to the management of activities falling under the project. .

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DESCRIPTION OF THE DP MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM
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The representative body will receive funds arriving from the European Social Fund, redirecting them through extra-budgetary channels to the corresponding co-ordinating body of each Equal initiative.

The co-ordinating body has opened an account in its name for specific management of the Equal Initiative. All of the investments made by DP partners and the other co-funding public bodies will be credited to this account. This account will also be used to pay for the costs incurred by implementation of the Equal Initiative.

By way of operative backup for treasury income and expenditure, the co-ordinating body will create a computer application guaranteeing the separate accounting of income and expenditure, and a breakdown of these by type of action and eligible expenditure.

Both this computer application and the documentary backup for income and expenditure will be at the disposal of EUDEL, the Association of Basque Municipalities, in order that it may appropriately control and endorse expenditure and can, when required, provide the UAFSE with certification corresponding to the real expenditure incurred.

The co-ordinating body will receive the invoices corresponding to the project, proceeding to make a preliminary entry on the computer software created for this purpose by each DP. These supporting documents will be verified and validated by EUDEL by means of sampling or a census to be determined. This will permit final accounting and identification by means of a stamp on the invoices indicating co-funding by the ESF within the framework of the Equal Initiative for certification by EUDEL at the moment established by the co-ordinating body before the UAFSE. This computer software will permit the periodical (four or six-monthly) drawing up of budget follow-up reports (income and expenditure) for their analysis by the Steering Committee.

Request for payment, following certification of the expenses by EUDEL, will be made by the co-ordinating and representative bodies.