PURPOSE:
presentation of the report by the Court of Auditors on the 2008 annual accounts
of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Coordination at the
External Borders of the Member States (FRONTEX).
CONTENT: in
the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s Annual Accounts present fairly, in all
material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2008 and the
results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended. It
considers the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Agency for
the financial year ended are, in all material respects, legal and regular.
The Court of
Auditor’s report includes a detailed section on the Agency’s expenditure and
an analysis of the expenditure, as well as the Agency’s replies.
- Analysis
of the accounts by the Court: in its report,
the Court makes a number of observations in particular as regards the
financial and budgetary management. The Court states that in 2008, the
budget increased by EUR 29 million, nearly 69% compared with the
previous year. Considering that an equivalent amount of appropriations
(EUR 30.3 million) had to be carried forward and that EUR 13 million of
appropriations had to be cancelled, the Agency did not have the capacity
to cope with such a significant increase of its budget. The Court also
notes that more than EUR 17 million was paid out in 2008 on the basis of
unilateral grant decisions signed only by the Agency. This type of
instrument was not foreseen, in the rules in force for Agencies (grants
must be covered by written agreements between the Agency and the
beneficiary). Legal commitments were entered into before the
corresponding budgetary commitments. By the end of the year 49 ex-post
commitments were registered in the register of exceptions. This high
number of exceptions shows a recurrent problem in the Agency’s
commitment system. For the recruitment procedures audited, the selection
criteria and the threshold scores for passing to the next stage of the
selection process had not been decided upon before the start of the
evaluation process and the recruitment files were not always complete.
This situation did not ensure transparent and non-discriminatory
procedures. Lastly, the Court states that the Agency did not prepare a
multiannual work programme and its annual work programme did not
correspond to its budget.
- The Agency’s replies: the increase of EUR 29 million left limited time
to implement the additional activities. Substantial progress is expected
in the level of utilisation of appropriations in 2009 and the coming
years. Corrections were made to the final annual financial statements.
The Agency states that it will also take additional measures to
reinforce controls on commitments to be carried forward. Moreover, a new
Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) was drafted in cooperation with
the border authorities of the Member States. New FPAs are being signed
with all border authorities that will participate in Frontex coordinated
joint operations. The new system is expected to be in force by mid-2009
onwards. If in exceptional circumstances a grant is signed after
activities have commenced, it will be entered in the register of
exceptions. The introduction of measures to reduce the number of
exceptions in 2008 has led to a significant decrease in the number of
exceptions registered. In the period from January-end of May 2009,
compared to the same period last year, there is a reduction of 50% in
the number of exceptions. Regarding recruitment, the Agency states that
corrective actions have been taken in 2009. Lastly, the Agency states
that in June 2009, the Frontex Management Board agreed on a Multiannual
Plan for the period 2010-2013. Additional efforts have also been made to
ensure consistency between the annual work programme, the budget and the
establishment plan.