The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the
report by Bart STAES (Greens/EFA, BE) on discharge in respect of
the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the
Bodies of the European Union (CdT) for the financial year
2016.
The committee called on the European Parliament
to grant the Director of the Centre discharge in respect of the
implementation of the agencys budget for the financial year
2016.
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that
it had obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts of
the Centre for the financial year 2016 were reliable and that the
underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on
Parliament to approve the closure of the Centres
accounts.
They made, however, a number of recommendations
that needed to be taken into account when the discharge is granted,
in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft
resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU
agencies:
-
Centres financial
statements: Members noted that the final
budget of the Centre for the financial year 2016 was EUR 50 576 283, representing an increase of 2 %
compared to 2015.
-
Follow-up of the 2015
discharge: Members strongly regretted
that the Centre does not yet have a business continuity plan
in place and thus is not complying with Internal Control Standard.
The Centre is urged to inform the discharge authority about further
action;
-
Budget and financial
management: monitoring efforts during
the financial year 2016 resulted in a budget implementation rate of
89.37 %, representing an increase of 1.21 % compared to the
previous year. Members noted that
cash and short term deposits held by the Centre
decreased to EUR 34.2 million (compared to EUR 38.3 million at the
end of 2015) and reserves decreased to EUR 31.1 million compared to
EUR 34 million end of 2015). This decrease results from a budgetary
approach which intends to reduce the accumulated surplus from
previous years. Members acknowledged that, according to the Centre,
it envisages that the decrease of the budgetary surpluses will be
further accelerated in 2017 as a result of the implementation of
the new pricing structure that will decrease the average price for
translation paid by the Centres clients.
-
Commitments and carry-overs: Members noted that the Centre slightly reduced the
overall rate of committed appropriations carried over to the
following year from 9.63% in 2015 to 7.56% in 2016, representing a
2.07% decrease.
-
Performance:
Members noted the review of the client satisfaction system in order
to develop a more effective process for engaging with clients. They
also noted with satisfaction that the Centre adopted a new
translation quality assurance action plan for 2015-2016. A 98.2
% achievement implementation rate was noted. The focus was placed
on the implementation of a new corpus management tool (MultiTrans)
and the automation of the information flow on related translation
requests via the new workflow tool, eCdT.
Members also made a series of observations
regarding commitments and carry-overs, staff policy, internal
audits, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests and
performances of the Centre.
They noted the fact that the Centre has so far
complied with the target of a 5% staff reduction (plus 5% as a
cruising speed agency) from 2014 to 2018. They insisted
that the Centre must have the resources required to deliver a
first-class translation and language service and advised against
future cuts to the Centres budget or establishment
plan.