Activites

• 2004/03/12 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Budget 2003/417
  • OJ L 148 16.06.2003, p. 0082-0082
• 2003/04/08 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0158/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by Freddy BLAK (EUL/NGL, DK) granting discharge to the Management Board of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) for the financial year 2001. The Parliament also presented a series of comments in a resolution accompanying the discharge decision which aims to request the improvement of the financial management of the Centre. Firstly, concerning the budgetary implementation, the Parliament regrets that the Centre did not depreciate its fixed assets in order for the book values to reflect the real value of the goods which form part of the Centre's assets. It expects the Centre to comply with the Court's observation. It equally regrets that the Centre, despite the criticism of the Court, has kept an imprest account with too high a ceiling. The Centre is expected to be more receptive to observations made by the Court in order to avoid such criticism in the future. Parliament deplores the fact that, despite repeated criticism by the Court, the Centre has not fully respected the tendering procedures for the awarding of contracts. Parliament recalls that this is not only a violation of the principle of equal treatment but could also result in legal action against the Centre by disadvantaged tenderers. It will continue to monitor such cases and expects the Centre to proceed with its efforts towards better programming of its work in order to avoid urgencies, which have in the past resulted in non-observance of the rules for public tender procedures. Parliament notes that the Court of Auditors takes the view that the carry-over rate for operating appropriations remains too high (2,8 million) and that the Centre should pursue its efforts to increase the quality and monitoring of the planning of its activities; notes that the new Financial Regulation will provide an improved legal base for carry-overs. It welcomes however the assurance by the Centre to try and improve the quality, and to follow up the programming of its activities. As regards the follow-up to external evaluation, Parliament takes the view that the Centre should follow to a greater degree the recommendations contained in the 2001 external evaluation report in order to ensure the consistency required between the tasks assigned to it and the organisation of its financial and human resources. It expects, therefore, the Centre to respond positively to the Court of Auditors criticism in order for it to achieve a better balance between its administrative expenditure and its operating expenditure arising from its activity programme so as to remedy the inconsistencies between its tasks and the distribution of its financial and human resources. Concerning the cooperation with the European Training Foundation (ETF), Parliament notes in this respect the joint efforts undertaken by the Centre and the ETF, as they appear in the Joint Progress Report of September 2002, in implementing the framework cooperation between the two bodies during the enlargement process and the preparation of the candidate countries. It considers that in the light of the conclusions of the Copenhagen European Council a detailed analysis of the impact of the transfer of competence in respect of the accession countries from the ETF to Cedefop is needed. Parliament calls on the Commission, therefore,together with the agencies concerned, to carry out such an assessment and, if necessary, to submit proposals relating to the transfer of expertise and of human and financial resources. Parliament suggests that its committees responsible monitor the results of this cooperation in order to evaluate the possibility of further enhancing such cooperation without prejudice to solutions entailing the merger of activities where appropriate. The resolution also includes general points concerning the bodies referred to in Article 185 of the Financial Regulation. These Agencies should have more operational tasks and they could for example be entrusted with executing Community programmes in the field of education or health thereby avoiding the creation of further executive agencies by the Commission. The Commission is asked to make proposals in this respect by 30 June 2003 at the latest and before creating any further executive agencies. Parliament recalls that independent ex-ante control of the Agencies by the Financial Controller of the Commission has ceased to exist and is worried that the absence of outside ex-ante verifications of financial operations might increase the risk of irregularities and mismanagement. It invites the Court of Auditors to increase the number of checks carried out by its auditors and the Agencies to review and modify thoroughly their procedures for implementing their budget in order to counter this risk. Equally, the Agencies are asked to bring their procedures for implementing the budget in line with the requirements of the new Framework Financial Regulation as soon as possible and by 1 July 2003 at the latest. It recalls that the Agencies shall adopt their own financial rules, which may not depart from the Framework Financial Regulation except where their specific operating needs so require and with the Commission's prior consent. The Court of Auditors is asked to give an opinion on all financial provisions adopted by the Agencies which depart from the Framework Financial Regulation. Parliament also states that non-respect of public procurement rules is not only potentially detrimental to the financial interests of the Agencies but can also be a criminal offence under the law of Member States. The Court of Auditors is asked to report at the next opportunity on whether the Community bodies duly cooperate with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and apply the Interinstitutional Agreement of 25 May 1999 concerning internal investigations by the OLAF unreservedly. The Commission is invited, with a view to accelerating the efforts towards preparing integration of the future Member States, to make proposals to foster better functioning of these Community bodies, ensuring better value for money through a cost/ benefit analysis, and avoiding any unnecessary proliferation of agencies; such proposals may provide, for bodies entrusted with similar tasks, for the setting-up of common boards.�

• 2003/03/19 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0079/2003
• #2493
• 2003/03/07 Council Meeting
• 2002/10/10 Non-legislative basic document published
  • N5-601/2002 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the report from the Court of Auditors on the financial statements of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (ECDVT) for the financial year 2001. CONTENT : this report concerns the results of the audit performed by the Court of the financial statements of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training for the financial year ended 31 December 2001. This examination has enabled the Court to obtain reasonable assurance that the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2001 are reliable and that the underlying transactions, taken as a whole, are legal and regular. The report shows final appropriations for the financial year totalled 13,5 million euro, almost all of which were committed. Payments in respect of the appropriations of the financial year amounted to 10,6 million euro; 2,8 million euro were carried over to the following financial year. The appropriations carried over to 2002 concerned mainly operating appropriations (Title III), amounting to 2,2 million euro, i.e. over 40 % of the appropriations committed. The Centre should pursue its efforts to increase the quality and monitoring of the planning of its activities. The report also states that the accounting system's possibilities regarding electronic signatures should be fully exploited (electronic signatures should be an option open not only to the Accounting Officer and administrative staff but also to the Authorising Officers) in order to uphold the principle of the separation of duties. Concerning the application of the financial provisions, the report states that the Centre has an imprest of account with a ceiling of 2 000 000 euro. This figure is still too high. Moreover, there is no limit to the amount of individual payments that may be made. The Centre should continue its efforts to apply purchasing procedures more strictly as has already been pointed out on several occasions in previous reports. Thus two contracts were concluded directly with the suppliers of the services without observing the relevant rules. In order to carry out its tasks, the Centre receives a subsidy from the Commission which forms the bulk of its budgetary revenue. This revenue is intended to cover its administrative expenditure and operating expenditure arising from its programme of activities. The headings over the budgetary items relating to operating expenditure do not, however, correspond to those of the tasks assigned to the Centre. Moreover, the activity report does not clearly indicate the link between the operating activities described and the Centre's tasks. This absence of link with the tasks may also be seen in the organisation chart of staff assigned to operating activities. These inconsistencies between, on the one hand, the tasks laid down by the Centre's Regulation and, on the other hand, the distribution of its financial resources, the organisation of its activities and the allocation of its human resources result in the FIBUS system not being able to establish a link between the Centre's tasks and the implementation of its programme of activities as the latter is reflected in the implementation of its budget. The report specifically states that the Centre should take care to ensure greater consistency between the tasks assigned to itby the basic legislation and the distribution of the financial and human resources granted to it. The practical organisation of its activities should also reflect the Centre's objectives more closely. In order to make its activity more transparent and to be able to audit the effectiveness of its management, a recognisable link between the Centre's objectives and the organisation and the implementation of its activities should be established. The ECDVT replies point by point on all of the criticisms made by the Court. It states in particualr that: - as regards electronic signatures, the Centre's IT section is currently undertaking the relevant training to the staff concerned; - concerning the separation of tasks, this is currently ensured as, at present, the hard copy 'paper' document has ultimate validity. Whilst it was the case, in 2001, that not all authorising officers signed in FIBUS, this is now the practice; - the Centre will table a new draft decision on the creation of an imprest account and limiting its ceiling to EUR 100 000, which corresponds to expenditure in the year 2001; - the Centre has also set up a working group on activity-based budgeting which will refine its activity-based-budget approach for 2003; - the2003 work programme will be the first one with in the framework of the new 2003 to 2006 medium-term priorities. That work programme will give clear indications of activities and outputs for the working areas based on the Centre's basic tasks. Also in 2003, the Centre will, via an acti-track system, ensure maximum transparency of the time spent on specific activities.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}],
• 2002/08/27 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: N5-601/2002
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0079/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0158/2003
• : Budget 2003/417
• : OJ L 148 16.06.2003, p. 0082-0082

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)