The European Parliament adopted a decision concerning
the discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at
the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union
(FRONTEX) in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s
budget for 2010. The decision to grant the discharge also closes
the accounts for the Agency for that year.
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has
obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts for the
financial year 2010 are reliable and that the underlying
transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted a resolution
containing 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 resolution on performance, financial management and
control of EU agencies:
- Budget and Financial Management: Parliament notes that the level of payments of the
2010 budget improved from 61 % in 2009 to 69 % in 2010.
Moreover it notes from the Agency that the payment levels for the
2010 operational budget reached 79 % compared with 65 % in
2009.
- Parliament notes that the Agency only used 69% of
payment appropriations in 2010 and that there have been significant
carryovers since 2006. Whilst taking note of the justifications
given by the Agency, namely the need to ensure continuity in the
Agency's operational activities and to allocate funds for
deployment in the first quarter of the following year, it
reiterates that the practice of carryovers of appropriations should
be strongly curtailed and should not hamper sound financial
management practices. It requests that the Agency follow the
principle of annuality in the future. It also wonders whether it
would not be more responsible for the budgetary authorities to take
greater care in the future when deciding on increases in the
Agency's budget in the light of the time needed to carry out new
activities.
- Public procurement and grants: Parliament notes that according to the Final
Accounts, the Agency has two ongoing litigation cases related to
tender procedures and that the applicants have claimed damages for
a total amount of EUR 10 794 806. It urges the Agency to regularly
inform the discharge authority of developments in these two
cases.
- Performance: Parliament
calls on the Agency to develop further coherence in the strategic
and annual planning of its operations. It notes, in fact, that the
objectives of the Annual Work Programme (AWP) for 2010 are not
clearly linked with those for 2010 in the Multi-Annual Plan
2010-2013. It notes that discharge in respect of the implementation
of the budget of the Agency should continue to be based on its
performance throughout the year.
- Internal audit:
Parliament acknowledges that in 2010 the Internal Audit Service
(IAS) performed an audit on operational planning and that the IAS
still needs to review the Agency's implementation of seven "very
important" recommendations from the IAS's previous audit. They call
on the Agency to implement the recommendations.