The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Interim Executive Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2021.
Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurance that the Agency's annual accounts for the financial year 2021 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 563 votes to 33 and 27 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations set out in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.
Agency’s financial statements
The final budget of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2021 was EUR 16 114 100, representing a slight increase of 0.35 % compared to 2020.
Budgetary and financial management
The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2021 resulted in a budget implementation rate of current year commitment appropriations of 97.26 %, representing a slight increase of 0.46 % compared to 2020. Parliament regretted that the current year payment appropriations execution rate was 63.53 %, representing a slight increase of 1.38 % compared to 2020.
Other observations
Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, staff, prevention of conflicts of interest, internal controls and Covid-19.
In particular, it noted that:
- the Agency achieved almost all its targets and that six of the work programme outputs were cancelled as the pandemic had an impact on traveling and events;
- adequate human and financial resources should be ensured to allow the Agency to continue implementing its work programme with a very high activity completion rate, in particular in the light of the implementation of the new EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work (2021-2027);
- on 31 December 2021, the establishment plan was 97.5 % implemented (39 temporary agents posts were filled out of 40 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget). Further efforts are needed to achieve gender balance at senior management level and in the Management Board;
- the decision providing rules for acceptance of gifts and hospitality by the Agency staff was adopted. Moreover, the management board members are requested to provide a declaration of absence of conflicts of interest in addition to a declaration of interests;
- the compliance and the implementation of the internal control framework were satisfactory;
- the Agency launched and further implemented a number of new electronic internal procedures;
- due to the COVID-19 crisis, a significant part of the 2021 budget for missions and meetings was not used and partially transferred via credit operations between titles, chapters, items and activities;
- greater transparency and public accountability should be ensured by better-utilising media and social media channels.