RESOLUTION informing the Economic and Social Committee of the reasons for the postponement of the Decision concerning the discharge of the general budget of the European Union for the 1996 financial year - Section VI, Part A: Economic and Social Committee

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

- having regard to Article 203(10) of the Treaty on European Union,

- having regard to Article 22(2) and (3) of the Financial Regulation,

- having regard to the revenue and expenditure account and the financial statement relating to the 1996 financial year (SEC(97)0402 - C4-0197/97),

- having regard to the annual report by the Court of Auditors on the 1996 financial year (C4-0599/97) (1),

- having regard to the Council recommendation of 9 March 1998 (C4-0168/98),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A4-0289/98),

A. having regard to the serious nature of the conclusions of the Court of Auditors annual report for 1996 on the management of the ESC's appropriations,

B. whereas the irregularities detected tarnish the European Union's image in the eyes of the general public,

C. recalling the position it expressed in paragraph 8 of its resolution of 31 March 1998 informing the Commission of the reasons for the postponement of the discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 1996 financial year concerning the empowerment which all the European institutions should grant to UCLAF to enable it to carry out inquiries (2),

1. deplores the results which have emerged from two audits concerning the management of the ESC's appropriations, one carried out by the ESC's Financial Controller and the other by the Court of Auditors;

2. considers that the emergence of this entire issue requires it to be referred to the Court of Auditors and to UCLAF for two reasons: to enable the extent of administrative involvement or responsibility to be fully determined as regards the entry into the accounts, the commitment, the authorisation and the payment of expenditure, and to enable the reliability of the new reimbursement system recommended by the Court of Auditors and the conditions for the recovery of incorrectly paid expenditure to be checked;

3. expresses great regret over the way in which the ESC arranged for the post of Financial Controller to be filled, even though it was known in advance that the post would fall vacant and despite the fact that the budgetary authority had been informed of the vacancy pursuant to Article 55 of the Financial Regulation in the course of the 1998 budget procedure;

4. asks that the ESC's Financial Controller be required to furnish an explanation of how, on an earlier occasion, he had found it possible to establish that the payments in question were in conformity with 'all acts made in implementation of the budget and the Regulations, and [with] all acts made in implementation of the Treaties and Regulations` and, furthermore, that they were in compliance with the principles of economy and sound financial management laid down in Article 2 of the Financial Regulation;

5. deplores the extremely incomplete nature of the information contained in the revenue and expenditure account and the financial statement in Section VI-A of the general budget; calls on the ESC to ensure that the presentation of data on the implementation of the appropriations for which it is responsible is transparent, comprehensive and accurate; considers, therefore, that the information to be provided in connection with the 1996 financial year must be supplemented by information from the accounting officer relating in particular to the exercise of his powers of recovery or of payment made in connection with expenditure which has been the subject of comments by the Court of Auditors;

6. informs the ESC that it cannot be given discharge until the above conditions and requests have been satisfied, including the giving of discharge to the accounting officer, as required under Article 77 of the Financial Regulation;

7. instructs its President to forward this Resolution to the Commission, the Court of Auditors and the Economic and Social Committee and to have it published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, L series.

(1) OJ C 348, 18. 11. 1997.

(2) OJ C 138, 4. 5. 1998, p. 43.