Having
examined the revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2005 and
the balance sheet of revenue and expenditure at 31 December 2005 of the
European Food Safety Authority, the Council recommends the European
Parliament to give a discharge to the Executive Director of the Authority in
respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005.
In doing so,
it confirms that EUR 3.6 million (64%) of the EUR 5.7 million in
appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2004 to the financial
year 2005, have been used. In addition, EUR 6.3 million in appropriations
have been carried forward from the financial year 2005 to the financial year
2006 and EUR 9.5 million have been cancelled.
In parallel,
the Council makes accompanying comments on the discharge which should be
followed up. In particular, it:
- notes that
the Court has been able to issue a statement of reasonable assurance on
the reliability of the Authority's annual accounts. However, it regrets
that in respect of the reasonable assurance as to the legality and
regularity of the underlying transactions, taken as a whole, the Court
has excluded some situations relating to the award and conclusion of
contracts;
- is concerned
with the fact that the Authority has not fully respected the rules in
force regarding the contract award process, such as the statutory
minimum number of tenders required to take part in the contracts
procedure, the documentation of the application of the selection
criteria, or the rules related to the appointment of evaluation
committees. It also regrets that in one framework contract the clauses
included in it had not been observed. Consequently, it calls on the
Authority to pursue tightening up its internal control system of the
procurement procedures;
- highlights
that as regards budgetary management, it expects the Authority to
take the appropriate measures to improve the implementation of its
budget, and ensure that the resources are not mobilised unnecessarily.
It also stresses the importance of the introduction by the Authority of
an activity-based management, as laid down in the Authority's Financial
Regulation, with a view to improving performance monitoring;
- also calls
on the Authority to follow the Court's remarks regarding the need to
solve the shortcomings detected in expenditure control, mainly
concerning the carrying out of risk analysis;
- as in the
previous year, the Council notes with concern that regarding staff
recruitment, the procedures used for the selection of candidates
were incorrect or not duly justified, and calls on the Authority to take
the appropriate measures to remedy all the weaknesses detected by the
Court, mainly by improving the application of the selection criteria in
its recruitment processes.