The European
Parliament adopted by 605 votes to 6, with 12 abstentions, a decision to
postpone its decision on discharge to be granted to the Director of the
European Police College (CEPOL) in respect of the implementation of its
budget for the financial year 2008.
Parliament
thus postpones the closure of CEPOL’s accounts.
In parallel,
Parliament adopted by 605 votes, to 4, with 10 abstentions, a resolution
containing a series of observations on budgetary and financial management
which may be summarised as follows:
- criticisms
of the Court of Auditors: Parliament
considers that the Court made a great number of criticisms in regard to
CEPOL’s budgetary and financial management and that, for the most part,
the College’s responses are vague and insufficient. It considers, as a
result, that the discharge authority is not in a position to evaluate
well whether the College will be able to improve in the future;
- structural
problems: given the small size of the
College, Parliament considers that this calls into question its capacity
to handle effectively the complexities of the EU's financial and staff
regulations. Moreover, the College secretariat's location, in Bramshill,
some 70 kilometres from London, is a disadvantage, inter alia as regards
recruitment and public transport links. Overall, Parliament questions
whether the College's new Director will be able to address these
structural problems and wonders whether consideration should not be
given to attaching the College to Europol;
- College
governance and transparency: Parliament
notes the College's high fixed governance costs, noting that the College
has a 27-member Governing Board and calls for a list of board members to
be placed on the website of the College;
- reliability
of the accounts: Parliament is concerned
about the overall quality of financial information supplied and the
fixed assets management systems. It also regrets that no ex post control
by an external company was launched even in mid-2009 (following the
Court of Auditors' findings in the 2007 financial year report that there
were cases of appropriations which were used to finance private
expenditure). Parliament calls on the College to take all the steps
needed to ensure that such a control is carried out as speedily as
possible;
- weaknesses
in procurement procedures: noting the number
and serious nature of irregularities in the procedure used for a public
supply contract, Parliament stresses, as in previous years, the need for
the College to strictly abide by the Financial Regulation and EC public
procurement legislation;
- failure
to comply with the rules governing expenditure on courses: Parliament notes the great number of administrative and
financial rules governing expenditure on the organisation of courses and
seminars, which were not followed and the irregularities regarding the
routine organisation of the College. In this regard, it calls on the
College to take steps to improve the situation;
- carryover
of appropriations: CEPOL carried over 31 %
of its total budget in 2008 and this situation is at odds with the
principle of annuality. For this reason, Parliament calls on the College
to introduce a system of differentiated appropriations in future budgets
for grants, so as to obviate the need for cancellations;
- other
irregularities: Parliament notes the absence
of a legal commitment covering a total of EUR 39 500, budgetary
commitments preceding the legal commitments in nine cases covering a
total of EUR 244 200. As a result, the College needs to take steps to
improve this situation and, in the coming years, the discharge for the
implementation of its budget should be further based on its performance
throughout the year;
- ongoing
OLAF investigation: Parliament recalls the
OLAF investigation into the use of public money for private purposes by
members of the College’s staff and is pleased to note that some
information has been obtained. This relates to the fact that the
recovery process has been initiated for the amounts involved. It calls
on the College and the Commission to communicate the findings of the
OLAF investigation to the discharge authority without delay;
- human
resources: Parliament notes that it was not
until 2009 that the College issued a vacancy notice for the recruitment
of an Internal Control Standards Coordinator and that the interviews for
that post were then scheduled for early 2010;
- internal
audit: Parliament calls on the College to
implement the recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS),
in particular in regard to public procurement; management assurance;
fixed assets (inventory system); management of delegations (delegations
must be fully documented and regularly reviewed); budgetary management;
compliance with accounting rules and principles; and the checklist
ensuring consistency and documentation of the financial controls;
- Action
plan: lastly, Parliament calls on the CEPOL
to adopt and implement an action plan to meet the objectives set out in
the annex to this report by 30 June 2010. As a second step, the
College's Director, in cooperation with the IAS and the parent
directorate-general (DG) would have to draft specific measures and a
timetable for implementation of that plan and to submit them to the
Governing Board for adoption. Parliament calls on the College to
communicate the specific measures and indicators adopted to the
discharge authority by 30 June 2010, as well as on the Court of Auditors
to deliver an opinion in letter form on the establishment of the
College's action plan to the discharge authority at the earliest
opportunity.
Parliament
also makes a number of general recommendations that are contained in the
resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU
agencies (see 2010/2007(INI) adopted in parallel).