The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report
by Marian-Jean MARINESCU (EPP, RO) on discharge in respect of the
implementation of the budget of the Innovative Medicines Initiative
(IMI2) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2014.
The parliamentary committee calls on the European
Parliament to grant the joint undertakings Executive Director
discharge in respect of the implementation of the joint
undertakings budget for the financial year 2014.
Noting that the Court of Auditors issued a statement
of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality
and regularity of the underlying transactions for the financial
year 2014, Members call on Parliament to approve the closure of the
joint undertakings accounts.
They made, however, a number of recommendations that
need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted. They
may be summarised as follows:
- General remark: Members
note that the Court of Auditors' report is based on too many
general remarks to the detriment of viable, specific ones. They
therefore call for an audit with a sharper focus on the annual
financial performance, on the implementation status of multiannual
projects (including a clear presentation of the implementation of
the budget for the respective year and for previous years) and on
the results and their implementation. They note that the
Institutions and Bodies are required to produce each year a Report
on Budgetary and Financial Management and that the information
provided by the Joint Undertaking in this report lacked
harmonisation and was often incomplete. They call on the Commission
to provide guidance as to the nature and content of the
report.
- Budget and financial management: Members note that the joint undertaking's annual
budget included commitment appropriations amounting to EUR 223
million and payment appropriations amounting to EUR 171 million.
They note the overall implementation rate was 92.4 % (99.5 % for
2013) for commitment appropriations and 73.9 % (97.5 % for 2013)
for payment appropriations. Members note the lack of information on
the ex post audits carried out by the IMI and IMI2 joint
undertakings. They invite the Court to include in future reports
information regarding the number of ex-post audits, the total
amounts covered and the findings. They call on the Court to include
more information on budget execution (commitment and payments,
including in-kind and cash contributions) for FP 7 and Horizon 2020
programmes in the upcoming annual reports.
Lastly, Members issue a series of observations
regarding conflicts of interest in the joint undertaking, the
undertaking's legal framework, and procurement and internal control
procedures.