Activities of Saskia BRICMONT related to 2021/2106(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, Section III – European Commission
Amendments (4)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that for expenditure specifically for Heading III (Security and Citizenship) the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) chose to examine a sample of 27 transactions designed to contribute to the Court's overall statement of assurance; deeplystresses that the Court also found four cases of non-compliance with legal and financial provisions, but without a financial impact on the Union budget; agrees with the Court that failure to abide by the rules can undermine the sound financial management of Union spending and, potentially, affect the eligibility of the costs claimed; regrets that the Court did not estimate the error rate for Heading III as the audit scope was not designed to be representative for this Heading; regrets this choice by the Court despitcalls the multiple calls from Parliament to calculate the estimated level of error; deplores the fact that eight out the 27 transactions examined by the Court contained errors among which four contained quantifiable errors which had a financial impact on the amounts charged to the Union budget; highlights that such cases may have an important negative reputational impact; urges the Commission to address that situation and report to the discharge authority about the progress achieved;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Regrets that the residual error rate has increased by comparison to the previous year (2,69 % in 2020 as compared to 2,65 % in 2019)for grants under direct management of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST); notes that the main cause of error is the lack of supporting documents which has even worsened in 2020 by the fact; reminds that due to the COVID-19 crisis the audits had to be performed remotely without access to the bookkeeping of the beneficiaries; calls on the Commission to address this issue and make use of digital tools that allow remote access to bookkeeping of beneficiaries; welcomes the corrective action plan outlined by DG JUST; recalls the importance of monitoring visits for ensuring sound financial management and calls on the Commission to step up efforts in that direction;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Stresses that the Court found five errors in payments made by the Commission; points out that one of the errors concerned a minor overpayment of costs for software licences while the other four related to staff allowances; notes the recommendation from the Court to reinforce consistency checks on staff declarations of allowances received from other sources and raise staff awareness of this issue in order to improve the Commission’s system for managing statutory family allowance;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Calls on the Commission for enhanced compliance with the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources1a as a matter of compliance with the Union's legal provisions and good governance principle; _________________ 1a OJ L 433I , 22.12.2020, p. 28.