The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) in which it called on the European Parliament to grant the Management Committee of the Office of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications discharge for implementation of the Office's budget for the financial year 2012.
Taking note that in order to address the shortcomings related to the legality and regularity of transactions, the Office has included in its Financial and Accounting Manuals clear procedures, detailed steps and workflows to be used by all financial actors, Members welcomed the changes and improvements made to procedures applied by the Office as regards:
Members also welcomed the Office's revised communication policy, which ensures the attribution of mobile phones to staff based on professional needs, and the internal controls made for monitoring compliance with that policy.
Prevention and management of conflicts of interest and transparency: Members noted that the conflicts of interests policy concerning the Office's staff members follows the same principles, and that the staff members' conflicts of interests declarations are also available through the Office's public register. They acknowledged that the Office aims at raising awareness of its policy on conflicts of interest, as well as that of its Board.
In parallel, Members stated that the Office has met all formal requirements for the Internal Control Standard (ICS) on Information and Communication and noted that a review of the ICS is scheduled by the Internal Audit Service and that the Office should report to the discharge authority on the results of that review as soon as they are available.
Performances: lastly, Members noted that the Office has begun to increase its profile as a Union body by uploading the Union logo on some pages on its website, and looks forward to this being extended to the BEREC's home page and systematically to all communications, thereby ensuring visibility of the contribution from the Union budget to the Office.