The Committee
on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Véronique MATHIEU (EPP, FR) on
discharge to be granted to the European Network and Information Security
Agency, calling on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of
the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Foundation’s budget
for the financial year 2008.
Noting that
the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2008 are reliable, and
the underlying transactions are legal and regular, MEPs approve the closure
of its accounts. However, they make a number of recommendations that need to
be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the
general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on financial management
and control of EU agencies (see 2010/2007(INI):
- performance: Members congratulate the Agency on its performance in 2008.
They call on it to set out a comparison of operations carried out during
the year for which discharge is to be granted and in the previous
financial year so as to enable the discharge authority to assess more
effectively its performance from one year to the next;
- budgetary
and financial management: Members note that
the Agency continues to take all possible measures to obtain from the
tax authorities of the host Member State a refund of EUR 45 000,
corresponding to the amount of VAT paid in advance by the Agency. They also note the enormously high cash reserves
over long periods which as of 31 December 2008 the Agency’s cash
reserves amounted to EUR 2 436 694. They call on the Commission to
examine ways of ensuring that the principle of needs-based cash
management is implemented to the full and what changes in approach are
needed to ensure that the Agency’s cash reserves are kept as low as
possible on a long-term basis;
- internal
audit and human resources: Members
congratulate the Agency on the full implementation of the
recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS).