Finance ministry reclaims €32,000 of unspent funding from Narva
The Ministry of Finance is claiming back €32,000 of unspent funding from Narva City Government, which was allocated to make street crossings safer, after turning down an appeal for an extension.
In March last year, the city government received an investment grant from the Ministry of Economic Affairs totalling €404,545 to increase road safety at crossings on Kangelaste Avenue, Kreenholmi Street, and Võidu Avenue. But to date, nearly €32,000 of the grant has not been used.
The rules for this type of road construction grant state that the beneficiary must submit an overview of the use of the money no later than December 1 of the following year and any unused money will be reimbursed to the Ministry.
In November, however, the Narva City Government asked the ministry to extend the deadline for both the use of the grant and the submission of the inventory until the end of May 2020, as several procurements failed. The Ministry of Finance refused.
In December, Mayor of Narva Aleksei Jevgrafov sent a letter to the ministry requesting the deadlines be extended to December 18, 2019. In December, Narva finally sent the ministry an overview of the use of the money.
Head of the Ministry's Road and Railway Department Ain Tatter said in a reply sent to the Narva City Government on the last day of the year that, as explained earlier, these deadlines could not be extended and should be used by December 1 of the following year, unless the amount is less than €1,000.
"/.../ Given the percentage of self-financing indicated in the application, the amount allocated to the City of Narva remained at €31,717.83. We request that the remainder be transferred to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications within the deadline," said Tatter.
It was also pointed out that the money given to Narva was earmarked for specific purposes and could not be used for other objects.
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Editor: Helen Wright