2012 discharge: Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC)

In accordance with Annex V, Article 5, paragraph 2(a) of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, Parliament decided by 493 votes to 137, with 52 abstentions, 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.

In so doing, Parliament approved the closure of the Office’s accounts for 2012.

Improvement of the Office’s internal management: 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, Parliament welcomed the changes and improvements made to procedures applied by the Office as regards:

• financial and budget management, in particular as regards the rate of budget implementation (89.55%);
• commitments and carryovers, even if necessary efforts still need to be made as regards the cancellation of appropriations (28% of cancelled credits or carried over to 2013);
• procurement and recruitment procedures since the revision of the recruitment guidelines implemented in 2013.

Parliament 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: Parliament 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. It acknowledged that the Office aims at raising awareness of its policy on conflicts of interest, as well as that of its Board.

In parallel, Parliament 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, Parliament 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.