The European Parliament adopted a decision on
discharge to be granted to the Director of the European Institute of Innovation and
Technology for the financial year 2011.
The vote on the decision to grant discharge covers the closure of
the accounts (in accordance with Annex VI, Article 5(1) of the
European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure).
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has
obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the
Institute for the financial year 2011 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 draft resolution on performance, financial
management and control of EU agencies.
- Financing, budget and financial management:
Parliament recalls that accordance with its
Foundation Regulation, the Institute's 2011 budget was financed by
a subsidy granted by the Union, a contribution granted by the
European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and a contribution
granted by the host Member State. The Institute's overall budget
for 2011 amounted to EUR 64 294 640.
- Implementation rate of appropriations:
Parliament takes note that the execution rate
for the period of financial autonomy stands at 92.81% for
commitment appropriations, 24.70% for payment appropriations
against commitment and 11.48% for payment against the commitment.
It calls on the Institute to inform the discharge authority of the
actions it will take to address this deficiency as the low
execution rates show difficulties in budget planning and
implementation. It also observes that a high level of payment
appropriations was carried over non-automatically from 2011 to
2012.
- Recruitment procedures: Parliament notes that by the end of 2011, 40 posts (23
temporary agents and 17 contract agents) had been filled, which
shows an increase of 66 %, compared to 24 posts filled by the end
of 2010.
Lastly, Parliament makes a
series of observations as regards the accounting systems of this
Agency.