Our Team

The Special EU Programme Body has three offices, located in Belfast, Omagh and Monaghan, and is comprised of three main directorates – Corporate Services, Managing Authority and Joint Secretariat.

Gina McIntyre, Chief Executive Officer

As Chief Executive of the SEUPB, Gina is currently responsible for the European Union’s PEACE IV and INTERREG VA funding programmes, totalling in excess of €0.5 billion, and the new PEACEPLUS Programme with a value of €1.14 billion. These Programmes represent a unique investment by the European Union in support of the peace process, and support the development of a more sustainable and prosperous cross community and cross-border region, across Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and, for INTERREG, also Western Scotland.

Having spent most of her career involved with EU support programmes, Gina has gained extensive knowledge of the complex cross-border development needs of the region and the appropriate European funding instruments available to meet them.

Gina is a qualified chartered accountant who trained and qualified with Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Gina is regularly invited to speak at major conferences and exhibitions across Europe on management of EU Programmes in a post conflict society.

Corporate Services

Within the Corporate Services directorate is the Certifying Authority – responsible for the certification of all expenditure claims submitted to the EU Commission, and ensuring eligibility with EU and national rules. This includes the review of processes and procedures by those implementing the Programmes and ensuring any irregularities are raised and actioned. In the SEUPB, the Certifying Authority also controls the cash flow, including making payments to lead partners, drawdown of funds from the European Commission and subsequent reimbursement to each Member State. 

Corporate Finance, Human Resources, IT and Communications also sit within the Corporate Services directorate. 

PAUL SHERIDAN, CORPORATE SERVICES DIRECTOR 

Managing Authority

The Managing Authority (MA) has overall responsibility for the management, implementation and evaluation of the Cooperation Programmes (the document approved by the European Commission which establishes the programme strategy and priorities) . The MA has established a Financial Control Unit (FCU) to verify the legality and regularity of all expenditure incurred. It conducts checks on each lead partner to establish their its administrative, financial and operational capacity to receive grant funding.  FCU also carries out administrative and on-the-spot verifications of claims made by a project. 

PAUL BEATTIE, MANAGING AUTHORITY DIRECTOR

Joint Secretariat

With functional responsibilities delegated by the Managing Authority, the Joint Secretariat assists in the implementation of the Programmes and is responsible for providing information on funding opportunities. The Joint Secretariat (JS) also prepares project assessments for presentation to the Steering Committee to assist in its  decision-making role. JS also assists lead partners in the implementation of their projects and the delivery of outputs. 

MARK HUDDLESTON, PEACEPLUS JOINT SECRETARIAT INTERIM DIRECTOR

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