Activities of Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ related to 2020/2172(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) for the financial year 2019
Amendments (12)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Underlines the important role of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (‘Europol’) in supporting Member States’ criminal investigations and providing operational analysis; emphasises also the extension of its tasks and its growing role in the prevention and combating of serious crime, includingand organised crime, and terrorism;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Reminds the Agency to regularly review and update its performance measurement system and KPIs to ensure Agency’s efficient contribution and expertise at EU level; Encourages the Agency to carefully analyse the outcomes and use them to improve their strategy and activity planning;
Amendment 7 #
7 a. Notes with satisfaction that the Agency implemented Court’s observation from 2017 on publication of vacancy notices on the EPSO website;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Welcomes that the Court of Auditors ('the Court') has declared the transactions underlying the annual accounts of Europol for the financial year 2019to be legal and regular in all material respects and that its financial position on 31 December 2019 is fairly represented; welcomes that the Court has found the payments underlying the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019 to be legal and regular in all material aspects;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes with concern the finding of the Court, which also relates to the follow- up of the previous year’s findings, that the Agency irregularly prolonged the duration of a framework contract for the provision of business travel services by signing amendments in 2018 and 2019 after the contract had expired, rendering the amendments and related payments irregular; notes the Agency’s reply that the prolongation in 2019 was the result of a conscious business decision to preserve business continuity and did not constitute a weakness in ex-ante control and that, furthermore, an internal audit was to commence in the fourth quarter of 2020 with a view to obtaining additional assurances on the Agency’s contract management approach; calls on the Agency to improve the regularity of transactions and to strengthen accordingly contract management and ex-ante controls;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that the number of operations that Europol supported grew from 1 748 in 2018 to 1 921 in 2019 (representing an increase of 9,89 %) and that operational meetings funded by Europol increased from 427 in 2018 to over 500 in 2019 (representing an increase of 17%), which underline the substantial increase in the importance of the Agency's work;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes that, according to the Court’s report, for the procurement of furniture, accessories and related services, the terms used in the documents for the call for tender were not specific enough, undermining the competitive nature of the tendering procedure; notes, moreover, that the Agency did not sufficiently check the accuracy of underlying prices and the calculation of discounts applied for the non-standard items before submitting the order form to the contractor; notes that, according to the Agency’s reply, the tender documentation included the subject matter of the procurement and the applicable exclusion, selection and award criteria, thus allowing for competitiveness and, with regard to the discount given by the contractor, the fact that the contractor had offered a higher discount than the standard rate included in the contract and the Agency thus acted in compliance with the principles of sound financial management, in line with the provisions of the contract; calls on the Agency to ensure that tendering specifications are comprehensive to allow fair and effective competition;
Amendment 17 #
4. Regrets to note again the Court’s finding that there were weaknesses in contract management and ex ante controls linked that the Europol irregularly prolonged the duration of a framework contract for the provision of business travel services by signing an amendment after the contract had expired; notes that this resulted in irregular payment of EUR 32 531 in 2019.; takes note of the explanations from Europol in response to the Court’s finding, highlighting that the extension was a conscious decision to preserve business continuity and that Europol will have an internal audit on contract management in 2021 to obtain assurance on its contract management arrangements and calls on the Agency to improve the regularity of transactions;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Encourages the Agency to continue promoting their work, research and activities to increase its public visibility;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Notes the late payments issued by the Agency in 20 % of the cases in 2019; acknowledges that the level of late payments was even higher in previous years but calls on the Agency to regularise payments to bring these in line with the Financial Regulation to avoid reputational risk;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Notes the Court’s observations that underlying prices and calculation of certain discounts were not properly checked prior to submitting the order form to the contractor of the purchasing of furniture; calls on the Agency to integrate such checks in its ex-ante controls, before signing and sending the order forms;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4 d. Welcomes the Agency’s action following the Court’s observation from 2017 so that it now publishes vacancy notices on the website of the European Personnel Selection Office in addition to on its own website and on social media;