Resolution

of the European Parliament containing the comments accompanying the decision concerning discharge to the Management Board of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2001

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

having regard to the Court of Auditors' report on the financial statements of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training for the financial year 2001, together with the Centre's replies(1) (C5-0601/2002),

having regard to the Council's recommendation of 7 March 2003 (C5-0088/2003),

having regard to the EC Treaty, and in particular Article 276 thereof,

having regard to Article 12 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 337/75(2) as amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1946/93(3) and having regard to Article 185 of the Financial Regulation of 25 June 2002(4),

having regard to Rule 93a and Annex V of its Rules of Procedure,

having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A5-0079/2003),

A. whereas the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Thessaloniki Centre) pursues its mission as a reference Centre for the promotion and development of vocational education and training at Community level through compiling documentation on systems and developments in this area and dissemination of all relevant information and documentation, through conducting research in that field, through supporting a concerted approach to vocational training development and by providing a discussion forum for interested parties,

B. whereas on 10 April 2002 Parliament gave discharge(5) to the Management Board of the Centre in respect of the implementation of its budget for the 2000 financial year and, at the same time,

- regretted the fact that Cedefop had failed to honour its undertakings regarding the procedure it had itself decided to implement with respect to the award of contracts, in particular for information technology-related projects,

- welcomed the Action Plan adopted by the Management Board as a follow-up to the report of the external evaluation as well as the fact that Cedefop gave an undertaking to implement this Action Plan in accordance with the objectives and time-schedule indicated, while keeping the Parliament informed through an annual progress report,

- insisted that the cooperation framework which the Centre had set up with the European Training Foundation be fully implemented,

C. whereas the Court of Auditors has obtained reasonable assurance that the accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2001 are reliable and the underlying transactions are, taken as a whole, legal and regular,

1. Notes the following figures for the accounts of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training;

Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2001 and 2000

>TABLE>

Source:

European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.

NB:

Any discrepancies in totals are due to the effects of rounding.

Budgetary implementation / Financial Provisions

2. Regrets that the Centre did not depreciate its fixed assets in order for the book values to reflect the real value of the goods which form part of the Centre's assets; expects the Centre to comply with the Court's observation;

3. Regrets that the Centre, despite the criticism of the Court, has kept an imprest account with too high a ceiling; expects the Centre to be more receptive to observations made by the Court in order to avoid such criticism in the future;

4. Deplores the fact that, despite repeated criticism by the Court, the Centre has not fully respected the tendering procedures for the awarding of contracts; recalls that this is not only a violation of the principle of equal treatment but could also result in legal action against the Centre by disadvantaged tenderers; will continue to monitor such cases; expects the Centre to proceed with its efforts towards better programming of its work in order to avoid urgencies, which have in the past resulted in non-observance of the rules for public tender procedures;

5. Notes that the Court of Auditors takes the view that the carry-over rate for operating appropriations remains too high (EUR 2,8 million) and that the Centre should pursue its efforts to increase the quality and monitoring of the planning of its activities; notes that the new Financial Regulation will provide an improved legal base for carry-overs; welcomes however the assurance by the Centre to try and improve the quality, and to follow up the programming of its activities;

Follow-up to external evaluation

6. Takes the view that the Centre should follow to a greater degree the recommendations contained in the 2001 external evaluation report in order to ensure the consistency required between the tasks assigned to it and the organisation of its financial and human resources;

7. Expects, therefore, the Centre to respond positively to the Court of Auditors criticism in order for it to achieve a better balance between its administrative expenditure and its operating expenditure arising from its activity programme so as to remedy the inconsistencies between its tasks and the distribution of its financial and human resources;

8. Takes note of the efforts which the Centre has deployed in its Action Plan; will be monitoring the relevance of the measures announced in order that the appropriate results be achieved, especially with a view to responding adequately to the new challenges of enlargement; calls on the Centre to carry out in the coming years an analysis of the impact of the measures adopted;

Cooperation with the ETF

9. Notes in this respect the joint efforts undertaken by the Centre and the European Training Foundation (ETF), as they appear in the Joint Progress Report of September 2002, in implementing the framework cooperation between the two bodies during the enlargement process and the preparation of the candidate countries;

10. Considers that in the light of the conclusions of the Copenhagen European Council a detailed analysis of the impact of the transfer of competence in respect of the accession countries from the ETF to Cedefop is needed; calls on the Commission, therefore, together with the agencies concerned, to carry out such an assessment and, if necessary, to submit proposals relating to the transfer of expertise and of human and financial resources;

11. Suggests that its committees responsible monitor the results of this cooperation in order to evaluate the possibility of further enhancing such cooperation without prejudice to solutions entailing the merger of activities where appropriate;

Further proposals

12. Recalls that the external evaluation report stressed that a substantial effort was needed in order to raise the public profile of Cedefop and called, inter alia, for improvement in the dissemination and targeting of information; recalls that the same report suggested a discussion on the subject of whether and in what ways Cedefop could gain from closer cooperation with the European training foundation;

General points concerning the bodies referred to in Article 185 of the Financial Regulation

13. Takes note of the fact that there is an imbalance between administrative and operational expenditure in many Agencies, with administrative expenditure exceeding expenditure for operational purposes;

14. Takes the view that these Agencies should have more operational tasks; they could for example be entrusted with executing Community programmes in the field of education or health thereby avoiding the creation of further executive agencies by the Commission; asks the Commission to make proposals in this respect by 30 June 2003 at the latest and before creating any further executive agencies;

15. Recalls that independent ex ante control of the Agencies by the Financial Controller of the Commission has ceased to exist;

16. Is worried that the absence of outside ex ante verifications of financial operations might increase the risk of irregularities and mismanagement; invites therefore:

- the Court of Auditors to increase the number of checks carried out by its auditors,

- the Agencies to review and modify thoroughly their procedures for implementing their budget in order to counter this risk;

17. Asks the Agencies to bring their procedures for implementing the budget in line with the requirements of the new Framework Financial Regulation(6) as soon as possible and by 1 July 2003 at the latest;

18. Recalls that the Agencies shall adopt their own financial rules, which may not depart from the Framework Financial Regulation except where their specific operating needs so require and with the Commission's prior consent; asks the Court of Auditors to give an opinion on all financial provisions adopted by the Agencies which depart from the Framework Financial Regulation;

19. Underlines in particular the strict segregation of duties between authorising officers and accounting officers and the enhanced role of the latter in:

(a) laying down and validating the accounting systems,

(b) keeping the accounts,

(c) validating systems laid down by the authorising officer to supply accounting information,

(d) cooperating with the Commission's accounting officer,

(e) preparing and presenting the financial statements and the reports on implementation of the budget;

20. Stresses that accounting officers shall be appointed by the management boards of the Agencies on the grounds of particular competence as evidenced by diplomas or by equivalent professional experience; recalls that they shall not be hierarchically subordinated to authorising officers;

21. Asks the Agencies to fully respect the rules for procurement procedures as laid down in the Financial Regulation; stresses that open calls for tenders must be used as much as possible in order to enhance transparency and to ensure equal treatment of potential tenderers;

22. Calls upon the Agencies to monitor closely the granting of leave on personal grounds, in order to ensure that conditions of transparency and separation of interests are met;

23. Recalls that non-respect of public procurement rules is not only potentially detrimental to the financial interests of the Agencies but can also be a criminal offence under the law of Member States;

24. Asks the Court of Auditors to report at the next opportunity on whether the Community bodies duly cooperate with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and apply the Interinstitutional Agreement of 25 May 1999 concerning internal investigations by the OLAF(7) unreservedly; also asks the Court of Auditors to evaluate the effectiveness of this cooperation on the basis of the cases processed so far;

25. Notes that the Court of Auditors deplores the practice of "super-user" rights in computerised systems (where one and the same person is able to discharge the duties of the manager, the authorising officer, the financial controller and the accounting officer) as incompatible with the principle of the separation of duties; asks all the Agencies to ensure that such "super-user" rights are no longer attributed;

26. Stresses that computerised systems must guarantee the existence of a complete audit trail for each operation and for any change made to the system so that it is possible at any time to identify the nature of the change and the person who made it;

27. Invites the Commission, with a view to accelerating the efforts towards preparing integration of the future Member States, to make proposals to foster better functioning of these Community bodies, ensuring better value for money through a cost/ benefit analysis, and avoiding any unnecessary proliferation of agencies; such proposals may provide, for bodies entrusted with similar tasks, for the setting-up of common boards;

28. Considers it out of the question, on grounds of efficiency and cost, to expand further the administrative boards of the Community bodies during the forthcoming enlargement; takes the view that enlargement offers a good opportunity to reconsider thoroughly the composition and working methods of these administrative boards, which are already very ponderous as a rule; calls on the Commission to put forward appropriate proposals by 31 July 2003 to amend the constituent acts of Community bodies accordingly and, in so doing, to examine whether provision could be made for common administrative boards for bodies with similar responsibilities;

29. Recalls the Court of Auditors' observation(8) that there is a risk of directors of Community bodies becoming too dependent on the Commission; calls therefore on the Commission to submit by 31 July 2003 an amendment to the constituent acts of the agencies to ensure that the directors of Community bodies may in future be appointed only with the assent of Parliament;

30. Invites the Commission to make an overall study of activities currently deployed by various Community bodies that may overlap or serve the same goals in order to propose appropriate solutions including possible mergers of agencies; notes that the Commission has stated a possible overlap between Cedefop and the ETF in the field of vocational training and between the Foundation for the improvement of Working and Living Conditions and the Agency for Health and Safety and Work(9);

31. Invites the Commission furthermore, in line with its proposal on European governance aimed at concentrating its activity on the core tasks, to include in its action programme the appropriate proposals with a view to ensuring that overlapping between the activities of its services and those of the agencies is avoided;

(1) OJ C 326, 27.12.2002, p. 42.

(2) OJ L 39, 13.2.1975, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 181, 23.7.1993, p. 11.

(4) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

(5) OJ L 158, 17.6.2002, p. 59.

(6) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.

(7) OJ L 136, 31.5.1999, p. 15.

(8) Opinion 10/2002 of the Court of Auditors on a Commission proposal for amendment of the constituent acts of Community bodies following the adoption of the new Financial Regulation (OJ C 285, 21.11.2002, p. 4).

(9) See working document from DG-budget on the management costs and analytical accounts of the decentralised agencies.