Technical assistance to improve capacity building for Railway Infrastructure Manager in Croatia

The overall objective of the Action is to prepare HŽ Infrastruktura d.o.o. (HŽI), the Railway Infrastructure Manager in Croatia, for efficient management and use of the opportunities under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and to provide technical assistance for the development and implementation of projects pre-identified in Part I of Annex I of the CEF Regulation. The Action should result in an increase in the number of high-quality projects of European added value on the TEN-T core network and its Corridors.

Grant Agreement no. MOVE/B4/SUB/2014-705/CEF/PSA2/2/SI2.714460 was signed on 14.12.2015. The value of the Project is € 459,431.25 (in accordance with the amount which was determined by the EU in advance) and the amount was fully funded by the EU grant from CEF, which is also the maximum amount of eligible costs of the Project.

On 09.09.2016. a Contract was signed with consultant Ernst & Young Savjetovanje d.o.o. for the implementation of the Project in the value of HRK 1,456,200.00 and the implementation period until 09.01.2020. Within the Contract, HŽ Infrastruktura was provided with the necessary technical and administrative support in the preparation and implementation of projects financed from the CEF, which includes training, support in the preparation of project applications, public procurement procedures, etc.

During the implementation of the Project, 25 trainings were organized and held, on-the-job trainings were held and the following documents were prepared: project application documents, procurement documents, analyses on the possibility of applying for CEF calls, Manual of Procedure, E-brochure, Opinion on the review of the existing accounting system and recommendations for improvement as well as the Opinion on the review of the existing IT system UIIP and recommendations for the use of the system for CEF project management, risk registers for all CEF projects in implementation, annual reports on the implementation of CEF projects for INEA and other documentation related with CEF projects.

The Project enabled the participation of HŽ Infrastruktura employees in other seminars related to the preparation and implementation of CEF projects.

Within the Project a study visit to Slovenia was organized to exchange experiences of HŽ Infrastruktura employees involved in the preparation and implementation of CEF projects to gain knowledge and learn about examples of good business practice in the preparation and implementation of CEF railway infrastructure projects with colleagues from the Directorate of the Republic of Slovenia for Infrastructure, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Society for Infrastructure Development in order to strengthen the HŽ Infrastruktura administrative capacities.

The Project was completed in November 2020.

For further information, please contact: korporativne.komunikacije@hzinfra.hr