The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) for the financial year 2017 and to approve the closure of the accounts for the financial year in question.
Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2017 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 495 votes to 120 with 11 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations, which form an integral part of the decision on discharge and which add to the general recommendations set out in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:
Agency’s financial statements
The final budget of the Agency for the financial year 2017 was EUR 86 276 654.33 representing an increase of 22.87 % compared to 2016. This increase was mainly related to the enhanced mandate of the Agency.
Budget and financial management
The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2017 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.04 %, representing a slight decrease of 0.03 % compared to 2016 and a payment appropriations execution rate of 96.25 %, representing a decrease of 1.55 %. Parliament deeply regretted the high level of cancellations of carryovers from 2016 to 2017 amounting to EUR 792 182 and representing 23.30 % of the total amount carried over, showing a considerable increase of 12.12 % in comparison to 2016.
Members also made a series of observations regarding performance, staff policy, procurement and internal controls.
In particular, they noted that:
- the Agency succeeded in the operations related to the extension of its mandate and that its quality system for visits and inspections were consolidated;
- the high quality of information systems and databases developed by the Agency have resulted in an increasing interest expressed by third countries in exploring the potential for exporting the Agency’s knowledge;
- the Agency should intensify its efforts to overcome organisational, technical, legal and contractual problems linked to the deployment of Remote Piloted Aircraft Services operations;
- on 31 December 2017, the establishment plan was 98.58 % executed, with 205 temporary agents appointed out of 212 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget;
- the gender imbalance within the Agency's Administrative board members should be addressed;
- the Agency did not systematically check prices with the suppliers’ quotes and invoices issued to the framework contractor for the acquisition of software licences;
- no cases of conflict of interest were reported in 2017.