Efficient Payments to Polish Farmers Thanks to Cooperation Between Asseco and ARiMR in 2014-2016

Asseco Poland has developed and maintained the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) for the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR) for three years. Thanks to the cooperation, in 2014-2016, ARiMR reached the subsidy rates requested by the European Union (UE), and the Polish agricultural producers received their due funds on time.

The changes in the rules introduced by the European Union (EU) in the 2014-2020 budget perspective have led to the need to implement new IT solutions. In order to enable ARiMR to process applications in the Campaign 2015 and further periods, Asseco Poland has created IACSplus - a complex administrative and IT system enabling an efficient distribution of funds and a control of assistance to farmers. The system is in line with the principles of implementing the Common Agricultural Policy. That was a period of major challenges for ARiMR and Asseco. The scale and the complexity of the project have caused delays in the schedule, but thanks to a good cooperation the payments have been completed on time.

Asseco has been cooperating with ARiMR since 2001. After a few years we have taken over the maintenance of the IT resources of the Agency. Our cooperation reached a key moment when we processed the applications scheduled for 2015 under the EU 2014-2020 budget perspective, which required the development of a new system. We had to meet the EU requirements, and the scope of the changes and the development of the system was so large that we often found ourselves behind the schedule. Many EU countries have failed to cope with that challenge. We have had to face various complications, but despite the fact that ARiMR is the largest Payment Agency in the EU, which serves the largest number of farmers, it has managed to pay the subsidies within the required deadlines, by June 2016, said Witold Malina, Director of the Agriculture Division in Asseco Poland. This would not have been possible without the huge involvement of ARiMR and our specialists. Owing to the constructive approach of the Agency's management and the cooperation of our teams, we were able to respond to all emerging problems in real time and gradually implement the next modules of the system. Later, the processing of the applications in 2016 went seamlessly - nearly 70% of the payments were transferred by December 2016. During that period we also completed works on the last modules because the development of the system is still done more efficiently than building it from scratch, he added.

The IACSplus system is an extremely important element of the subsidy process for farmers. Each year, it serves over 1.3 million beneficiaries. Its implementation was a guarantee that the payments financed by the EU fund would be granted fairly and in accordance with the rules.

During his recent press conference, President of ARiMR Dariusz Golec commented on the results of the Campaign 2016, whose processing was possible thanks to the system, which Asseco Poland finally completed in December, 2016. Dariusz Golec emphasized that the payments to the farmers under the Campaign 2016 were processed faster than during the Campaign 2015. He stated that by May 16, 2017, ARiMR paid PLN 13.63 billion under direct payments to farmers, which accounted for over 90% of the funds allocated to that goal. He added that the amount was by more than PLN 2 billion higher than the sum paid in the corresponding period in 2015. The president of ARiMR also said that the disbursement of the LFA funds from the 2014-2020 RDP was processed faster than in the previous year's campaign - it amounted to PLN 1.20 billion (91.5% of the funds).

In December 2016, DXC took over the maintenance and development of the system for the following years. The company will be responsible for handling the Campaign 2017.