7 Amendments of Michal ŠIMEČKA related to 2022/2117(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) has declared the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large- Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) for the financial year 2021 to be legal and regular in all material respects with exception of the qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts; notes that its budget in 2021 indecreased fromto EUR 2516 million to EUR 264 million (+3.12%(-9.83% compared to 2020) while its staff increased from 274 to 310 (+13.13%);
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes with appreciation that in 2021, eu-LISA continued the development of new IT systems, as well as of the interoperability between the new and already existing systems; welcomes the completion of several projects such as the EES central system, the installation of the National Uniform Interfaces, the upgrade of the VIS communication infrastructure and the shared Biometric Matching Service; notes with satisfaction eu-LISA's increased efforts in research and innovation through projects in the areas of artificial intelligence, technologies for seamless and contactless border crossing, and internal security;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Regrets the fact that the Court issued a qualified audit opinion with respect to the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts of eu- LISA both for 2020 and for 2021; notes the Court’s explanation that the qualified opinion was issued in relation to six payments that were considered not compliant to the provisions of framework contracts, and other payments identified outside the initial sample affected by the same non-compliance, amounting in total to EUR 18.11 million in 2021, representing 6,2 % of the total payment appropriations available in 2021; notes from eu-LISA's reply that compliance in this area is affected by several factors linked to budgetary planning, the sourcing model, managing contractual evolutions, as well as understaffing, restricting the possibility of the Agency to limit the scope, duration and value of contracts;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that the eu-LISA signed a specific contract of €40 million to implement a framework contract related to large-scale IT systems, without specifying the details of the services acquired and with an extended duration; highlights the repeated concerns by the Court about the risk associated with the practice of giving resources to eu-LISA before the adoption of legislationlack of coordination between the allocation of resources and the adoption of relevant legislation; underlines that repeated delays in the adoption of legislation concerning the development and implementation of the systems managed by eu-LISA, rapid technological evolutions, as well as the overall uncertainty regarding the timeframe given to the Agency to implement new legislation further restrict the eu-LISA's ability to establish more specific details within the contracts it concludes, while ensuring business continuity and the optimal functioning of the IT systems managed; underlines that eu-LISA must take the necessary preparedness measures to ensure no delays on its part in the implementation of new relevant legislation, once adopted; calls on the Commission to better coordinate the allocation of resources to eu-LISA with the adoption of relevant legislative acts; calls on eu-LISA, the Court and the Commission to explore possible solutions towards enhancing procurement flexibility in order to better reflect challenges posed by rapid technological evolutions and the transversal operation of systems managed by eu-LISA;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned that eu-LISA amended the value of three contracts, two in 2021 and one 2019, which increased the maximum amount of the contracts by 50 % (€70.4 million, €20 million and €40 million respectively); sharnotes the opinion byof the Court thatand calls on eu-LISA shouldto improve theits contracts management in order to ensure that specific contracts are always aligned with the framework contracts; takes note of eu-LISA's reply that the increase of volume was triggered by changes in the legislation which required eu-LISA to source a higher volume of identical supplies and services initially tendered for; further takes note that the initial project and its evolutions are to be considered in the light of the ever- evolving nature of each large-scale IT system managed by eu-LISA; highlights that all contractual prices as well as the terms and conditions were left unchanged;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes the Court’ ongoing observations from 2018, 2019 and 2020 on the budgetary management; regretstakes note that the rate of carry-overs remain substantial compared to the total budget; welcomes that in 2021 no non-automatic carry-overs were performed; acknowledges eu-LISA's reply that carry-overs mainly related to contracting external support service providers, to address systematic understaffing following the assignment of new tasks to eu-LISA, over timeframes that did not align with the calendar year, but with the necessary duration of the services provided; calls on the Commission to improve coordination between the allocation of new tasks and resources in order to address these issues;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Regrets that several observations from the Court from previous years are still ongoing; calls on the Agency to effectively follow the observations from the Court and to step up efforts to implement corrective measures to address them; recalls that the European Parliament can use its power not to grant discharge in case recommendations would not effectively be followed upfurther calls on eu-LISA to report to the discharge authority about the progress made in this regard;