Activities of Bas EICKHOUT related to 2021/2122(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Asylum Support Office (now European Union Agency for Asylum) for the financial year 2020
Amendments (16)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2020 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 95,14 %, at approximately the same level as 2019 (95,22 %); notes with concern that the payment appropriations execution rate was at 80,91 %, which the Court deems as low, representing a decrease of 8,95 % compared to the previous year (89,86 %); notes with concern the Court’s conclusion that the carry-overs of committed appropriations for operating expenditure were high, at 33,8 %, and that the cancellation rate of budget appropriations carried over from 2019 to 2020 was also high, at 19 %; notes the Court’s conclusion that this contradicts the budgetary principle of annuality; calls upon the Office to follow up on the Court’s recommendation to improve its budget planning and implementation cycles, and inform the discharge authority about the progress made;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes with concern that the Court declared payments made in 2020 of a total amount of EUR 1 177 848 irregular because they were related to procurement errors in procedures carried out in 2016 and 2017 for rented premises in Rome and procurement procedures declared irregular by the Court in previous years (i.e. procurement for rented premises in Lesbos, for interim workers in Italy and for external experts);
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Recalls the Court’s conclusion of financial year 2017 that procedures for monitoring travel-related expenditure were weak; welcomes that the Office is carrying out an internal inquiry into the matter; notes, however, that this matter has not yet been resolved; calls on the Office to proceed swiftly with strengthening its procedures for monitoring travel-related expenditure;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Recalls the Court’s recommendation for financial year 2018 that the Office should establish effective financial ex-post control; notes with concern that the follow-up is still ongoing; calls on the Office to address this recommendation swiftly;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3 c. Notes the conclusion of the management board of the Office that the cost-effectiveness and added value of establishing an internal audit capability, in addition to the audit function already provided by the Commission’s Internal Audit Service, is negative;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3 d. Welcomes that an effective policy for managing rented premises and related services was established on 11 June 2021 and will apply in full as of 2022;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. WNotes with concern that despite the Court’s conclusion that progress is made in the attraction of new staff, the execution rate of 78,96 % means that for a fourth consecutive year in a row the Office did not manage to achieve the targets of its establishment plan; welcomes the progressively increasing occupancy rate of the Office, which the Office expects to reach a 90 % execution rate of its establishment plan at the end of 2021,; and welcomes the reported decrease in the staff turnover rate, from 6,58 % in 2019 to 5,73 % in 2020;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Recalls the Court’s conclusion from financial year 2017 that contract monitoring for compliance with national rules on interim workers was poor; notes that given the Case C-948/19 pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (the 'Court of Justice'), the Court will refrain from making any observations on the regularity of the Office’s approach; calls on the Office to inform the discharge authority about its next steps on this matter once the Court of Justice has published its decision in the aforementioned case;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7 b. Recalls the Court’s conclusion from financial year 2018 that the Office’s contracts with IT companies were formulated in a way that could imply the assignment of temporary agency workers instead of clearly defined services or products, and that this would contravene the Staff Regulations and the social employment rules of the Union; recalls the Court’s recommendation that the Office should draft contracts in a way which prevents any confusion between procurement of IT services and of interim workers, and notes the Court’s observation for financial year 2020 that progress on this issue is still ongoing; calls on the Office to address this matter swiftly;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7 c. Recalls the Court’s conclusion for financial year 2019 that the procedures used for selecting and contracting external experts systematically lacked a solid audit trail, and that subsequent payments on these contracts are irregular; notes with concern the Court’s conclusion that the follow up of the recommendation to address this issue is still ongoing; calls on the Office to keep the discharge authority informed about the progress made;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes that the Office has 10with concern the Office’s gender balance in its management board and senior management, with 21 men (83,367,7 %) and 210 women (16,732,3 %) in its seniorthe management, that the total staff is composed of 186 board, and 10 men (38,083,3 %) and 3042 women (62,0 %) and that the management board16,7 %) in its senior management; notes that the total staff is composed of 2186 men (67,738,0 %) and 10304 women (362,30 %);
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Recalls the irregularity of the Office’s procurement procedures in the previous financial years, and the effects these had on the legality and regularity of transactions in financial year 2020; notes the Court’s observations that the Office’s follow up of the Court’s conclusion about the procurement procedures for rented premises in Lesbos are still ongoing; notes that the Office’s response to the Court’s conclusion for financial year 2018 that the procurement for interim workers in Italy was irregular is still ongoing; calls on the Office to keep the discharge authority informed about its planned next steps on these matters;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Welcomes the revision of the control strategies for the main control activities in place by the Office, which followed a risk-based approach and took into consideration the cost-effectiveness of controls; welcomes the general improving situation as regards internal control, including procurement, in the Office, which can be deduced from the Court’s report; notes, in that regard, the observation of the Court that the 2018 Governance Action Plan was discontinued in 2020 and integrated into the quarterly monitoring report to the management board and the internal control self-assessment, but that some actions are still deemed relevant by the Court, and need to be addressed thoroughly, and calls on the Office to continue the implementation of those actions, noting, in particular, the number of interim workers replacing staff members, the level of vacant management posts and the update of the conflict of interest policy, and keep the discharge authority informed about the progress made;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes the creation of a COVID-19 response team in the Office by decision of the executive director on 11 March 2020 and the coordinated response in the Office to the COVID-19 pandemic; further notes with concern the observation of the Court that the Office had not finalised and adopted its business continuity plan and that the Office’s size and complexity of operations and recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic underline the importance of such a formalised, up-to- date plan; notes that the Office adopted its business continuity plan on 31 March 2021;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. NotWelcomes that the Office reports that some of the measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a positive impact on the environmental performance of the Office, in particular a reduction in electricity consumption, a reduction of the Office’s contribution to global CO2 emissions from travel due to the cancellation of missions and travel for participants attending meetings of the Office and training sessions, and the end of the requirement for candidates participating in staff selection procedures and sitting for written assessments to be physically present, relying instead on remotely managed alternatives (videoconferencing and monitored online assessment);
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. NotWelcomes that the Office has been looking into maintaining environmental measures and complementing them with longer-lasting initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint and address the areas of green building and sustainable mobility with regard to staff-related travel, greener commuting to and from work and travel related to meetings and training activities; encourages the Office to share its lessons learned with other members of the EU Agencies Network;