EN Official Journal of the European Union C 312/99

REPORT

on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the financial year 2005 together with the Office's replies

(2006/C 312/17)

CONTENTS

1-2 INTRODUCTION

3-6 STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

7-10 OBSERVATIONS

Tables 1 to 4

The Office's replies

INTRODUCTION

1. The Community Plant Variety Office (hereinafter the Office) was created by Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 (1). Its main task is to register and examine applications for the grant of Community industrial property rights for plant varieties and to ensure that the necessary technical examinations are carried out by the competent offices in the Member States.

2. Table 1 summarises the Office's competences and activities. Key information from the financial statements drawn up by the Office for the financial year 2005 is presented in Tables 2, 3 and 4.

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

3. This Statement is addressed to the Administrative Council of the Office in accordance with Article 111 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94.

4. The Office's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2005 (2) were drawn up by its President, pursuant to Article 112 of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94, and sent to the Court, which is required to give a statement of assurance on their reliability and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions.

5. The Court conducted an audit in accordance with its policies and standards, which are based on international auditing standards that have been adapted to the Community context. The audit was planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance that the accounts are reliable and the underlying transactions are legal and regular.

6. The Court has thus obtained a reasonable basis for the statement expressed below.

Reliability of the accountsThe Office's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2005 are, in all material respects, reliable.Legality and regularity of the underlying transactionsThe transactions underlying the Office's annual accounts, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.The observations which follow do not call the Court's statement into question.

OBSERVATIONS

7. The Office's budget for the financial year 2005 does not observe the principle of equilibrium between revenue and payment appropriations. As regards the implementation of the budget, the overall level of utilisation of the payment appropriations for the financial year was 85 %. The same appropriations gave rise to cancellations for operating activities (9 %) and especially administrative expenditure (20 %). These factors show that the Office should improve the planning and follow-up of its work to prevent appropriations from being needlessly mobilised.

8. In 2005, numerous difficulties affected the production of the annual accounts, and it was not possible to supply full accounts within the regulatory deadlines. The Office does not have reliable tools to reconcile the data in its financial management systems (budgetary and general accounting, register of plant varieties). This situation increases the risks of errors in the accounts.

9. General implementing rules governing the recruitment and grading of staff should be adopted (3) to guarantee the objective and transparent assessment of candidates. An examination of recruitment procedures revealed that the criteria for assessing candidates were not determined beforehand.

10. Anomalies were found in the award of contracts. In three of the 12 evaluation procedures that were examined, the deadline for delivery, although adopted as a criterion for awarding contracts, was not taken into consideration when selecting the successful bids (4). Two framework contracts were concluded for a maximum period of five years although this period may not exceed four years.

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 28 September 2006. For the Court of Auditors Hubert WEBER President

(1) OJ L 227, 1.9.1994, p. 27.

(2) These accounts were drawn up on 21 June 2006 and received by the Court on 4 July 2006.

(3) Article 110 of the Staff Regulations of officials and Article 12(5) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants.

(4) Article 117(1) of the implementing rules for the Financial Regulation (for the decentralised bodies, the procedures for awarding contracts are governed by the general Financial Regulation and its implementing rules (Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 (OJ L 248, 16.9.2002), and Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 (OJ L 357, 31.12.2002)).

Table 1 Community Plant Variety Office (Angers) Areas of Community competence deriving from the Treaty Competences of the Office as defined in Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 Governance Resources made available to the Office in 2005 (2004) Products and services supplied in 2005 (2004) Free movement of goods Prohibitions or restrictions justified on grounds of the protection of industrial and commercial property shall not constitute a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade between the Member States. (Extract from Article 30 of the Treaty) Objectives: to apply the system of Community plant variety rights as the sole and exclusive form of Community industrial property rights for plant varieties. Tasks: — to decide whether to refuse or grant applications for Community plant variety rights, — to decide on objections, — to decide on appeals, — to decide on the revocation or cancellation of a Community plant variety right. 1. The President directs the Office. He is appointed by the Council from a list of candidates proposed by the Commission after obtaining the opinion of the Administrative Council. 2. The Administrative Council oversees the Office's work programme and draws up rules governing the Office's working methods. It is composed of one representative of each Member State and one representative of the Commission, plus their alternates. 3. Decisions regarding the grant of Community plant variety rights are adopted by committees composed of three members of staff of the Office and by the Board of Appeal in appeal proceedings. 4. The Commission's control: review of the legality of acts by the President for which Community legislation provides no judicial review by any other body, as well as the legality of acts by the Administrative Council in respect of the Office's budget. 5. External control: Court of Auditors. 6. Discharge Authority: Administrative Council. Final budget 13,4 (11,3) million euro Staff numbers as at 31 December: Number of posts in establishment plan: 40 (38) Posts occupied: 40 (36) +5 (4) other posts (auxiliary contracts, national experts on secondment, local staff, employment agency staff) Total staff: 45 (40) Assigned to the following duties: Applications heard: 2 734 (2 651) Rights granted: 2 178 (2 178) Community rights in force at 31.12.2005: 11 231 (10 191) operational: 19 (16) administrative: 20 (8) mixed: 6 (6) Source: Information supplied by the Office. COMMUNITY PLANT VARIETY OFFICE Source: Office data — These tables summarise the data supplied by the Office in its annual accounts. Table 2 Implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005 (1000 euro) Revenue Expenditure Source of revenue Revenue entered in the final budget for the financial year Revenue collected Allocation of expenditure Final budget appropriations Appropriations carried over from the previous financial year Appropriations available (appropriations of the financial year and previous financial year) entered committed paid carried over cancelled available paid cancelled available committed paid carried over cancelled Own revenue 13 113 8 848 Title I Staff (NDA) 4 307 4 284 4 237 47 23 38 32 6 4 345 4 322 4 269 47 29 Community subsidies 0 0 Other revenue 333 654 Title II Administration (NDA) 3 608 2 846 2 190 630 762 705 583 122 4 313 3 551 2 773 630 884 Titre III Operating activities (DA) — CA 5 531 5 320 0 0 211 0 0 0 5 531 5 320 0 0 211 — PA 4 414 0 4 002 0 412 0 0 0 4 414 0 4 002 0 412 Total 13 446 9 502 Total CE 13 446 12 450 0 677 996 743 0 128 14 189 13 193 0 677 1 124 Total CP 12 329 0 10 429 677 1 197 743 615 128 13 072 0 11 044 677 1 325 NDA : non-differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations equal payment appropriations). DA : differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations may differ from payment appropriations). CA : commitment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations. PA : payment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations.

Table 3 Revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2005 (1) (1000 euro) 2005 Operating revenue Revenue 7 885 Total (a) 7 885 Operating expenditure Staff 4 226 Administration 1 485 Operating activities 3 972 Total (b) 9 683 Operating outturn (c = a — b) –1 798 Other income (d) 367 Other charges (e) 0 Economic result (f = c + d — e) –1 431

Table 4 Balance sheet at 31 December 2005 (2) (1000 euro) 2005 Assets Fixed assets 3 513 Short-term receivables 897 Cash accounts 19 111 Total 23 521 Liabilities Results accumulated from previous financial years 17 621 Economic result of the year –1 431 Short-term debts 7 331 Total 23 521 (1) The figures for the financial year 2004 are not given since they are not comparable to those for the financial year 2005 due to a change in the accounting methods applied. (2) The figures for the financial year 2004 are not given since they are not comparable to those for 2005 due to a change in the accounting methods applied.