Dear Deputy Minister Barkalaia,

Dear all,

 

We hope this e-mail finds you in good health.

 

As you know the Loan and the Grant Agreements have been signed on October 29, 2020.

To help prepare the operationalization of the Project, we discussed the next steps with the PIU nearly two weeks ago.

One of the upcoming steps was the submission of the Specimen Letter designating persons authorized to sign reimbursement applications to prepare the first reimbursement from KfW.

 

In the Grant Agreement (as well as in the Loan Agreement), we included the possibility for retroactive financing.

Retroactive financing means that KfW reimburses expenditures that were incurred by MoILHSA already up to 4 months before the entry into force of the respective agreements with KfW.

The maximum share admissible for retroactive financing as per the regulations of German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is 30%.

 

This means that the reimbursement application for retroactive financing may comprise up to 30% of the Grant amount, which would be EUR 1,743,612.74.

One of the conditions for eligibility of social expenditures under retroactive financing of the Grant is that the social expenditures must have been paid by MoILHSA to SSA between June 30 and October 29.

Other conditions for eligibility are outlined in the Separate Agreement (e.g. correct program measures, certification from SSA Director, confirmation that the expenditures have not yet been reimbursed by World Bank/AIIB, etc.).

 

A separate reimbursement application can - in addition to the 30% ceiling for retroactive financing - also comprise payments from MoILHSA to SSA that were made after the entry into force (=signing of the Grant Agreement).

 

We would be very delighted to have a call tomorrow (Nov. 17) at 14:30 Tbilisi time with PIU to discuss more details of disbursement/reimbursement.

For this call, we would suggest Skype as video-conferencing platform.

Would this suit your schedules?

 

As we are approaching the end of the Fiscal Year of BMZ, a quick reimbursement would be very much encouraged from our side.

We wish you and your families all the best in these troublesome times.

 

 

Best regards,

Salvatore Calanduccia

 

 

Salvatore Calanduccia
Portfolio Manager

Sustainable Economic Development and Education

Southeast Europe and Turkey

Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia

 

KfW Group

KfW Development Bank

Palmengartenstrasse 5-9
60325 Frankfurt
Germany

(  +49 69 7431 1157 /  +49 173 3260987 (mobile)
+ Salvatore.Calanduccia@kfw.de
8  www.kfw.de

 

 

 

 

Dear Salvatore,

 

Hello again. The meeting was very productive indeed and many thanks for the summery of our discussion.

 

We will follow up all activities/issues  and get back to you shortly.

 

Best regards,

Nino Kvernadze

 

ნინო კვერნაძე

პროექტის მენეჯერი,

მსოფლიო ბანკის COVID-19-ის წინააღმდეგ სწრაფი რეაგირების

პროექტის განმახორციელებელი ჯგუფი (PIU), 

საქართველოს ოკუპირებული ტერიტორიებიდან დევნილთა, შრომის, ჯანმრთელობისა და სოციალური დაცვის სამინისტრო 

www.moh.gov.ge  

 

Nino Kvernadze

Project Manager, PIU – World Bank

Emergency COVID-19 Response Project Implementation Unit

Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia

www.moh.gov.ge 

 

Email: ninokvernadze@moh.gov.ge

Cell: +995 599 18 46 44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Nata and Nino,

 

Thank you for the productive and pleasant call today.

 

Please allow me to quickly sum up what we agreed upon today:

• PIU/MoILHSA will send the specimen signatures to KfW (see attachment A-1 of Annex 4 of the Separate Agreement) soon.
• PIU/MoILHSA will send the ToR of Financial Management Expert and Project Coordination Expert to KfW together with a proposal of individual experts for direct award.
  • Both experts shall have a consultancy service contract following KfW’s standard contract.
• Reimbursement procedure shall be applied for both small expert contracts, as the values are too small for KfW’s Direct Disbursement Procedure

 

• As promised we herewith re-confirm that due to the high financial volumes we would kindly require the mandatory assurance engagement (audit) to be conducted by a well reputed audit company, pertaining to an international network of audit firms (e.g. the so-called “Big 4”) – as stipulated in the Separate Agreement.
  To increase efficiency and decrease the administrative workload of busy PIU staff but subject to KfW-internal approval, a top-up contract to the audit firm selected under the World Bank Project might be acceptable to KfW considering the requirement above (international network of audit firms, high reputation). However, in this case still a separate contract would need to be concluded (no amendment/addendum).

 

• After internal consultation with the responsible Disbursement Manager I, unfortunately, learned that KfW is obliged by the procedures of the Federal Ministry of Germany to convert the requested amount at an exchange rate of the date of disbursement from KfW to the Project Partner. However, with a slightly depreciating Georgian Lari together with a quite short projected implementation period of less than 1 year, the actual currency exchange risk is not considered to be too high.

 

 

Thank you again for the pleasant call. In case of questions, feel free to contact us anytime.

 

 

Kind regards,
Salvatore

 

 

Salvatore Calanduccia
Portfolio Manager

Sustainable Economic Development and Education

Southeast Europe and Turkey

Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia

 

KfW Group

KfW Development Bank

Palmengartenstrasse 5-9
60325 Frankfurt
Germany

(  +49 69 7431 1157 /  +49 173 3260987 (mobile)
+ Salvatore.Calanduccia@kfw.de
8  www.kfw.de

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vorstand: Dr. Guenther Braeunig (Vorsitzender), Dr. Ingrid Hengster,
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