Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts
for the financial year 2012 and the balance sheet at 31 December
2012 of the European Agency for the Management of Operational
Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States (FRONTEX),
as well as the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of
the Agency for the financial year 2012, accompanied by the Agency's
replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommends the
European Parliament to give a discharge to the Executive Director
of the Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget for
the financial year 2012.
The observations in the Court of Auditors' report in
relation to the financial year 2012 call for some comments by the
Council, which may be summarised as follows:
- in general, the Council welcomes the Court's opinion
that, in all material respects, the Agency's annual accounts
present fairly its financial position as at 31 December 2012 and
the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then
ended, in accordance with the provisions of the Agency's Financial
Regulation.
- Regularity of the underlying accounts: the Council regrets that the Court issued a
disclaimer of opinion on the legality and the regularity of the
transactions underlying the Agency's accounts due to the lack of
sufficient appropriate audit evidence, and encourages the
Agency to take appropriate actions, in line with its ex-post audit
strategy, and to proceed with the verification of expenditure for
the year 2012.
- Controls: moreover, the
Council calls on the Agency to address the internal control
weaknesses identified by the Court regarding the management of
fixed assets, notably the establishment of a procedure for their
disposal and the registration of fixed assets not in use, and to
complete the physical inventory of all assets owned by the
Agency.
- Carry-overs: the Council
invites the Agency to continue to improve its financial programming
and monitoring of the budget implementation, with the aim to
improve budget execution and to reduce budgetary transfers and
amounts carried over to the next financial year, in line with the
budgetary principles of specification and annuality.
- Recruitment: finally,
the Council encourages the Agency to pursue efforts in order to
address the shortcomings detected by the Court regarding its staff
recruitment procedures.