2007 discharge: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions EUROFOUND

2008/2255(DEC)

PURPOSE: to present the Court of Auditors report on the annual accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND) for the financial year 2007.

CONTENT: the Court of Auditors report includes a detailed section on the expenditure of the European Foundation as well as an analysis of the expenditure in the accounts and the Foundation’s replies.

  • The Court’s analysis of the accounts: the Court of Auditors makes a series of observations in its report, including on the recovery of an unsubstantiated amount of VAT, and on recruitment and procurement procedures (weakness in the tender evaluation procedure);
  • The Foundation’s replies: the Foundation notes that the VAT recovery for 2007 was delayed due to reasons of an essentially technical nature. It also notes that it adapted the recruitment procedure to address the issues highlighted by the Court and that it used the criticised procedure due to budgetary uncertainties. The Foundation states, however, that it is confident that best value for money was achieved.