Activities of Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY related to 2011/2217(DEC)
Shadow reports (2)
SECOND REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010 PDF (184 KB) DOC (105 KB)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010 PDF (194 KB) DOC (119 KB)
Amendments (26)
Amendment 3 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. ...Grants the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2010;
Amendment 3 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. ....Grants the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2010;
Amendment 6 #
Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. ...Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Paragraph 9 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Notes that the EEA implemented recommendations by the Internal Audit Service related to the documentation of QA/QC checks for the greenhouse gas inventory report1; welcomes the fact that the UNFCCC expert review team concluded for the year 2010 that the necessary quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures were in place; __________________ 1 The UNFCCC set minimum requirements for the reporting of Greenhouse Gas data by the Parties to the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. One of these requirements is that all Annex I Parties should have Quality Assurance and Quality Control procedures in place to ensure the transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability of the data reported. Within the EU’s National System for GHG inventories, the EEA is in charge of the implementation of these QA/QC procedures for the EU, for which the EU also developed its own QA/QC Programme.
Amendment 7 #
Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. ...Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that, for five months, from 22 May 2010 to October 2010, the Agency covered its building with a green façade which cost EUR 294 641 and that the contract was realised by the companies Ramboll, as general contractor, and Green Fortune; is surprised that there has been no public tender; demands from the Agency's Director details on how the companies were chosen as contractors; takes note from the Agency's Director, in her letter of 11 April 2012, thatakes note of the Agency's reply of 15 June 2012 and acknowledges that the negotiated procedure to select these costs were covered by the budget lines ‘2140 - Fitting-out of premises’ (EUR 180 872) and ‘3323 - Communications’ (EUR 113 769); underlines that the commitment appropriations under budget line 2140 increased from EUR 85 000 to EUR 271 049 against the opinion of the Agency's Head of Administration; notes that also in May 2010 the Head of Administration entered into sick leave and since then the positionntactors was in compliance with Article 126(1, b) of the implementing rules of the Financial Regulation; takes note of the Agency's explanation regarding the use of its occupied by an interim Head; notes from the Director's letter of 30 April 2012 that budget line 2140 has been reinforced by a budget transfer of EUR 180 872 from the budget line ‘2100 - Rent’; recalls that in December 2009 the Agency paid the rent for Q1 2010, thus avoiding reducing the amount to be repaid to the Commission; therefore calls on the Agency to explain the discharbudget to cover the green façade project; calls on the Agency to rigorously apply the principle of budget authority why it has extracted EUR 180 872 from the budget line ‘Rent’, while rent is a fixed sum by contract, and to provide information and written evidence on the procedures with regards to the budgetary transfers; expects the Agency to complete all the requested actions by the end of Augustnnuality following the Court of Auditors' findings in 2009 and the discharge resolutions of 2009 and 20120;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that in December 2011 the Agency awarded a Framework Service Contract for the provision of media monitoring for 48 months, for a total value of EUR 250 000, which is much higher than the costs of similar services in the previous years; observnotes that based upon this contract the Agency willthe Agency to date has spendt on average EUR 62 500 per year for media monitoring and believes that these costs are excessive and contrary to the principle of efficient use of the taxpayers' money;11,300 annually on media monitoring. Although the EEA will most likely make greater use of social media channels, the ceiling chosen for this framework contract might have been unnecessarily high.
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Internal Audit ServicTakes note of the (IAS) to audit the Agency's contracts in the area of canteen services, cleaning services, security services and furniture to establish whether the call preparation, publication, evaluation and contract management phases respect the two following principles: maximum competition and value-for-money, and to inform the discharge authority in du's conclusions that it does not find it necessary to carry out a further audit on the canteen, cleaning and security services, as such an audit has been already carried out by the cCourse of its findingst;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls onWelcomes the Agency to make a more explicit link between measures, resources and results's Management Plan System (MPS) which provides for a clear link between measures, resources and results; welcomes especially the fact that the Agency's MPS has been cited as best practice by the European Court of Auditors (in its Special Report No 5/2008), the Internal Audit Service and the European Ombudsman;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that, from June 2010 until April 2011, the Executive Director of the Agency was a trustee and a member of the International Advisory Board of Earthwatch - an international environmental charity engaging people in scientific field research and education - and was erroneously reported to be a member of the European Advisory Board of Worldwatch Europe; acknowledges that, in accordance with the Executive Director's statement, she stepped down from her positions in Earthwatch in April 2011 following advice from the President of the Court of Auditors in the context of a possible conflict of interests;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Is seriously concerned that inNotes that in February 2010, whilbefore the Executive Director was directly involved with Earthwatch, training was contracted for 29 staff members of the Agency, including the Executive Director, went for up to 10 days of research on different biodiversity projects in the Caribbean or Mediterranean managed by Earthwatch and that the Agency paid a total of EUR 33 791,28, to the NGO as stated by the Agency's Executive Director, and further notes that the ECA's final report for 2010 contained no findings about conflict of interest in this connection;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – introductory part
Paragraph 24 – introductory part
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is surprisedNotes the Agency's assurance that the Worldwatch Institute Europe founded on 5in November 2010 indicatregistered as its address that of the Agency and used its premises as its own without any rent to the Agency, thus using premises paid by the EU budget; regrets that the Director's letter of 30 April 2012 refers only to Worldwatch Institute US based and not to the Worldwatch Institute Europe which used the Agency's premises without any rent;; without the Agency's consent, takes further note that the executive director of Worldwatch Institute Europe was an Agency's guest scientist; calls on the Agency to provide the discharge authority with concrete details and documentary evidence on this matter, including the person in the Agency who authorised this, the concrete date when Worldwatch Institute Europe ceased to use the Agency's premises, as well as whether the work performed by the respective guest scientist of the Agency was published under the Worldwatch Institute Europe name or that of the Agency by the end of August 2012ensure absolute clarity in any future guest scientist arrangements;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 – indent 1
Paragraph 25 – indent 1
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Agency, in an effort to promote greater transparency in terms of preventing and combating cWelcomes the fact that the Agency prepared an updated Conflict of iInterests, to adopt immediatel policy and action plan to publish on its website the declarations of interest and, when they are not available,based on the findings and recommendations in the report from the cEurriculum vitae – including at least the educational and work background – for the management staff, the members of the scientific committee, the experts and the members of the Management Board by 30 June 2012; is of the opinion that such measures would allow the discharge authoropean Ombudsman; calls on the Agency to keep the discharge authority informed about the implementation of this policy following itys and the public to observe their qualificationdoption by the Agency's Mand to prevent potential conflict of interestagement Board on 27 June 2012;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 – introductory part
Paragraph 25 – introductory part
25. Calls on the Agency to inform in detail the budget authority, in particular the Budget Control Authority, ofWelcomes the information provided by the Agency concerning:
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 – indent 4
Paragraph 25 – indent 4
– the process, if any, of verification of the data sent by the Member States, the periodicity of this verification and the way in which the data sent by Member States is used by the Agency;