Preliminary assessment of the first payment request of Romania

        a) to g).
       The Audit Authority is entrusted with performing the specific audit activities as stipulated in
        art. 5, alin. 6.

The provisions of both GEO 124/2021 and GEO 70/2022 related to the mandates of the institutions involved in the mechanism of implementation and control of the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan are complemented by existing legislative provisions (i.e. art. 58 and 62 of the Law no. 98 of 19 May 2016 on Public Procurement, published in the Official Gazette no. 390 of 23 May 2016; Law no. 161/2003 on measures to ensure transparency in the exercise of public dignitaries, public functions and in the business environment, prevention and sanctioning of corruption, published in the Official Gazette no. 279 of 21 April 2003; Law no. 500/2002, version updated, for public finances, published in the Official Gazette no. 597 of 13 August 2002) as well as by a protocol concluded between MIPE and the National Agency of Integrity (ANI) (see Ares(2022)4797267), (2022)5561693) and (2022)5570064) which entrusts ANI with the powers to investigate cases of potential conflicts of interests for all categories of staff involved in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Commission Preliminary Assessment: Satisfactorily fulfilled

Number: 462       Related Measure: Reform of the compulsory education system to prevent and
                  reduce early school leaving

Name of the Milestone: Entry into force of the Government Decision establishing the implementation of the National Programme to reduce early school leaving Qualitative Indicator: Provision in the Government Decision indicating the Time: Q4 2021 entry into force of the National Programme to reduce early school leaving Context:

Milestone 462 is part of the reform of the compulsory education system to reduce and prevent early school leaving. The milestone calls for the entry into force of a Government Decision implementing the National Programme to reduce early school leaving, including the implementation of the Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE) in the schools included in the programme. The programme aims to reduce drop out, improve evaluation outcomes, achieve higher participation rates in national examinations and a higher percentage of pupils completing compulsory education; as well as to monitor, through the Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE) IT tool, pupils at risk of early school-leaving and support schools in data collection, individualised work plans and training.

Milestone 462 is an initial step in the implementation of the reform and shall be followed by milestone 463, on the entry into force of the Ministerial Order (MO) for the use of Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE) tool at national level by Q4 2022. The reform and complementary investments should reduce early school leaving by at least 25% (target 468). Evidence provided:

In line with the verification mechanism set out in the Operational Arrangements, the following evidence was provided:

1. Copy of the publication in the Official Journal No. 1252/2021 of 30.12.2021 of the Ministerial Order No. 6000 approving the Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE) mechanism and methodology. 2. Summary document duly justifying how the milestone (including all the constitutive

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