Amendments to the UCF regulations has come into force

Amendments to the Standard Form of the Grant Agreement and to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On Approval of the Procedure for Using Funds Provided in the State Budget for Implementation of Project Support Measures by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation” (№ 379 of 13.05.2020) have come into force.

On May 22, amendments to the Standard Form of the Grant Agreement and to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the Procedure for Using UCF Funds to Support Projects came into force.

The changes concern the terms of the project implementation and introduce the schedule of payments for the project. The regulation of property rights to copyright objects, the legal relations of the grantee with third parties are prescribed and the requirements to the content of the project are established.

In accordance with the new provisions of the agreement, the date of completion of the Project is the date of signing of the act on the implementation of the Project by UCF. To sign the Act, the grantee must provide all the necessary reporting documentation, namely: a substantive report on the implementation of the Project, a report on the receipt and use of funds for the Project and copies of primary accounting documents. Therefore, we ask grantees to take into account the reporting period when creating the work plan for the project.

From now on, the Foundation can finance the project in parts (tranches) and within the terms specified in the grant agreement. The standard contract contains provisions and the corresponding appendix, about the schedule of payment. Thus, at the stage of signing the Agreement, the grantee and the Foundation must agree on the project financing schedule.

If within the period established by the grant agreement, after receiving payment parts (tranches), the grantee has not submitted an act on project implementation and a report on the use of budget funds for the intended purpose, the amount of payment (tranche) must be taken back.

The agreement offers the grantee to independently regulate legal relations with third parties, who are related to the emergence (acquisition) of rights to copyright; the same applies to related rights and personal non-property rights to intellectual property. This means that the legal relationship in this area lies solely with the grantee who implements the project and the Foundation cannot be involved in the processes related to the settlement of such legal relations.

New provisions have been added regarding the grantee's relations with third parties, namely, the Foundation is not responsible for damages caused by the grantee. Therefore, we insist that you be careful and responsible when involving contractors in the project, renting property and premises, as well as other contractual relationships, because in case of disputes, the Foundation will not be able to provide you with assistance.

The content of the project is also regulated by the agreement, namely within the current legislation, the grantee must not allow the Project to promote war, violence, cruelty, fascism and neo-fascism, calls to eliminate Ukraine's independence, incitement of ethnic, racial, religious hatred, disrespect for national and religious shrines, as well as drug addiction, substance abuse, alcoholism and other harmful habits, pornographic materials.

We also ask grantees to pay special attention to the changes that have affected the annexes to the agreement. These are project application forms, project estimates, payment schedules and reports.