From 23rd to 24th February, representatives of the Moldovan Agricultural Intervention and Payment Agency (AIPA) visited the Rural Support Service to sign a memorandum of cooperation between the two agencies.
The Rural Support Service has extensive experience working as a payment agency, from its foundation to the present day, when it pays out over 750 million in support across more than a hundred different schemes. The Moldovan agency is interested in practical aid administration issues, the accreditation process of the paying agency, preparing various reports, delegated tasks, human resources issues, the role of the Legal Department in the accreditation process, creating a customer register and other matters. The RSS is pleased that our experience is useful to Moldova,' said RSS Director Andris Grundulis.
This is not the first meeting between the two agencies, with RSS employees having previously met with their Moldovan counterparts to discuss current issues and provide support to AIPA to help it become a fully-fledged agency capable of making payments under European Union programmes.
After the memorandum was signed, there were discussions about various topics, such as the role of the Finance Department in the accreditation process, the legislation governing the RSS's work, the employee selection process, the information the RSS collects about its clients, and the risk assessment process.