PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of
Auditors report on the annual accounts of the European
Institute for Gender Equality for the year 2016, together with the
Institutes reply.
CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the
Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the
Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of
Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each
institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and
regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an
independent external audit.
This audit focused on the annual accounts of the
European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). To recall,
the Institutes task is to collect, analyse and disseminate
information as regards gender equality and to develop, analyse,
evaluate and disseminate methodological tools in order to support
the integration of gender equality into all Union policies and the
resulting national policies.
Statement of assurance:
pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has
audited:
- the annual accounts of the Agency, which comprise the
financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the
budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2016,
and
- the legality and regularity of the transactions
underlying those accounts.
Opinion on the reliability of the
accounts: in the Courts
opinion, the Institutes annual accounts present fairly, in
all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December
2016 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the
year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial
Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the
Commissions accounting officer.
Opinion on the legality and regularity of the
transactions underlying the accounts:
in the Courts opinion, the transactions underlying the annual
accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 are legal and regular
in all material respects.
The report made a series of observations on the
budgetary and financial management of EIGE, accompanied by the
latters response. The main observations may be summarised as
follows:
The Courts observations:
- budgetary management:
the Court noted that the level of committed appropriations carried
over remained high for operational expenditure at EUR 1.7 million,
mainly in relation to studies going beyond the year end. The
Institute may consider introducing differentiated budget
appropriations to better reflect the multi annual nature of
operations and unavoidable delays between the signature of
contracts, deliveries and payments;
- internal controls: the
Court highlighted that in 2016 the Institute launched an open call
for tender for a framework contract on the maintenance and update
of its gender statistics tools and resources for a maximum amount
of EUR 1.6 million. The call was split into two lots without
indicating the respective amounts per lot. Following a question
from one tenderer, the Institute clarified on its website that the
maximum amount per lot was estimated at EUR 800 000. However, two
separate framework contracts were signed with the same tenderer for
a maximum amount of EUR 1.6 million per lot and an option to
further increase the amounts by up to 50 % per lot, allowing the
Institute to sign specific contracts over the maximum duration of
the FWC (four years) for up to EUR 4.8 million or three times the
amount announced in the contract notice. In reaction to the audit,
the Institute signed amendments to both FWC, reducing the maximum
amounts to EUR 800 000 each (with a potential increase by maximum
50 %).
The Institutes replies:
- budgetary management:
the Institute stated that the level of carry-overs remained at the
given level due to significant challenges imposed on five projects,
which caused them to be carried forward to 2017. EIGE considers the
fact that despite all the challenges caused by force
majeure factors, that impacted negatively on the
implementation of EIGEs budget, EIGE managed to decrease the
operational (C1) carry-overs down by more than 9 % is a good
achievement worth mentioning. Regarding differentiated
appropriations, it is important to note that in the past EIGE was
discouraged from introducing this approach because of the annuality
principle of the budget, despite that it will carry out a
feasibility analysis to develop a solid basis for taking a future
decision on introducing or not differentiated
appropriations;
- internal controls: the
Institute takes note of the Courts comment on the matter
which was caused by an administrative error due to which the amount
specified in the framework contract for each lot was not amended
accordingly. The signed framework contracts have no budget
implication, both lots have been awarded to the same contractor and
the candidates were duly informed during the tendering
phase.
Lastly, the Court of Auditors report also
contained a summary of the Institutes key figures in
2016:
- Budget: EUR 7.8
million.
- Staff: 45 including
officials, temporary and contract staff and seconded national
experts.