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 Artemis Joint Undertaking for
the financial year 2014.
The parliamentary committee calls on the European
Parliament to postpone its decision to grant the Executive
Director of the joint undertaking the discharge in respect of the
implementation of the joint undertaking's budget for the financial
year 2014.
Accordingly, Members call on Parliament to delay the
approval the closure of the joint undertaking’s
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
recall that the Joint Undertaking and the ENIAC Joint Undertaking
(ENIAC) were merged to create the Electronic Components and Systems
for European leadership Joint Technology Initiative (ECSEL JTI),
which started its activity in June 2014 and will run for 10
years.
- Qualified opinion of the Court of Auditors:
Members are concerned that the Court in its
report on the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking issued a
qualified opinion regarding the regularity and legality of the
underlying transactions on the grounds that the administrative
agreements signed with the national funding authorities
(‘NFAs’) regarding the audit of project cost claims do
not include practical arrangements for ex-post audits. They note
that the Joint Undertaking did not assess the quality of the audit
reports received from the NFAs concerning the costs relating to
completed projects even though the ECSEL JTI confirmed that its
extensive assessment of the national assurance systems concluded
that they can provide reasonable protection of the financial
interests of the Joint Undertaking’s members. Members invite
the ECSEL initiative to further strengthen its controls and the
Court to collect additional and necessary documents and information
as an alternative way to justify its opinion.
- Budget and financial management: Members note the Joint Undertaking's final budget for
the financial year 2014 included commitment appropriations of EUR 2
554 510 and payment appropriations of EUR 30 330 178 (operational).
They note that the utilisation rate for administrative commitment
appropriations was 38 % due to the merger of the Joint Undertaking
and ENIAC in June 2014 and to the fact that the budget was adopted
for the whole year.
Members note the limited amount of information
regarding in-kind and cash contribution. They call on the Court to
include, in its reports to come, concrete provisions regarding the
evaluation procedure and the level of in-kind and cash-paid
contribution.
Lastly, Members issue a series of observations on
internal audits, the undertakings legal framework, and on the issue
of the management of conflicts of interest.