The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union (CdT) for the financial year 2022 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the Centre's annual accounts for the financial year 2022 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 557 votes to 39, with 11 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 European Union agencies.
Qualified opinion
It should be noted that the Court identified irregular payments totalling EUR 1.3 million, of which EUR 0.6 million pertained to the Court’s determination that the Centre’s justifications for selecting certain procurement procedures without prior notification were insufficient, and EUR 0.7 million related to a failure by the Centre to monitor the consumption of financial ceilings at the level of individual procedures and framework contracts for translations, cumulatively accounting for 2.4 % of the payment appropriations available in 2022, thereby exceeding the materiality threshold set for the audit and, consequently, resulting in a qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of payments underlying the Centre’s accounts.
Centre’s financial statements
The final budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for 2022 was EUR 49 839 955, representing a decrease of 6.02 % compared to 2021.
Budgetary and financial management
The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2022 resulted in a budget implementation rate of current year commitment appropriations of 89.08 % representing an increase of 5.55 % compared to 2021. The current year payment appropriations execution rate was 83.50 %, representing an increase of 6.99 % compared to 2021.
Parliament noted that the Centre’s initial budget for 2022 (EUR 49 million) was subject to one amending budget adopted by the Centre’s management board in September 2022 and aimed to include the updated forecasts received from clients and the result of the review by the Centre of all expenditure items.
Other observations
Parliament made a number of observations concerning performance, staff, transparency and internal controls.
In particular, it noted that:
- the overall implementation rate of the Centre’s work programme for 2022 was 89.6 % according to amending budget 1/2022. Parliament regretted that that rate is lower than in 2021 (93.4 %), therefore ending a positive trend of year-on-year improvements since 2018 when the implementation rate was 82.4 %;
- with 348 070 pages, the number of pages of documents translated, modified, edited and revised decreased by 5.2 % compared to 2021 (367 264 pages);
- with regard to EU trade marks, the number of translated pages (239 964) further decreased by 12.6 % in comparison to 2021 (274 706 pages), therefore continuing on a significant downward trend. With a total of 588 033 pages translated in 2022, the actual volume decreased by 8.4 % from 2021;
- 2022 was a difficult year for the Centre, considering the external environment with the war in Ukraine, the continuing impact of COVID-19, increasing energy costs and inflation, and, therefore, a consequential increase in internal costs for the Centre’s premises and staff salaries;
- on 31 December 2022, the establishment plan was 93.78 % implemented, with 46 officials and 135 temporary agents appointed out of 51 officials and 142 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (193 authorised posts, as in 2021). There is an underrepresentation of men in the Centre’s overall staff;
- the Centre is still working on the solution that will allow the management board’s members to upload and maintain the declaration of interests and CVs by themselves;
- the Centre finalised and adopted a new anti-fraud action plan for 2022 and 2023;
- efforts were made to increase the Centre’s public visibility.