2012 discharge: European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (Frontex)

2013/2230(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX) for the financial year 2012, and called on the European Parliament to grants the Executive Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2012.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2012 are reliable, Members regretted that the Court of Auditors was not able to express an opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts.

They made a number of recommendations that needed 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.

·        Legality and regularity of transactions underlying the accounts: Members regretted that the Court of Auditors could not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence on the legality and regularity of the audited grant transactions related to the Agency’s activities in 2012, which amount to EUR 56 000 000, representing 63 % of the operating expenditure. They remarked that the Agency stated measures had been taken to justify certain expenditure and they called on the Agency to come up with a mutually acceptable solution, which took into account the Court of Auditors’ audit standards.

·        Financing, budget and financial management: Members recalled that the Agency's overall budget for 2012 amounted to EUR 84 000 000.

·        Implementation rate of appropriations: the report observed that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.86 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 75.23 %.  Notes with concern that the level of carry-overs is excessive, as it was in 2011, and is at odds with the budgetary principle of annuality;

·        Recruitment procedures: the committee noted that the Court of Auditors had identified shortcomings in the Agency’s recruitment procedures which affect transparency and equal treatment of candidates, and it awaited clarification.

Lastly, they asked FRONTEX to strengthen transparency and prevent conflicts of interests, as well as make publicly available the Declarations of Interests of certain members.