Report on the financial statements of the Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union for the financial year ended 31 December 2000, together with the Centre's replies
Date: 2001-10-10
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, activity report, financial control, financial year

28.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 372/27

on the financial statements of the Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union for the
financial year ended 31 December 2000, together with the Centre’s replies

REPORT

(2001/C 372/04)

CONTENTS

Paragraph

THE COURT’S OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-4

MAIN OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET OF THE
TRANSLATION CENTRE FOR THE BODIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (LUXEMBOURG) FOR
THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Implementation of the budget and budgetary accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Financial statements and keeping of the accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Financial and regulatory provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Management

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Follow-up to previous observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Management of human resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Staffing policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-37

5

6-8

9-11

12-13

14-15

16-37

16

Recruitment procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-19

Description of duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Growth of the Centre’s staff and activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20

21-33

34-37

Tables 1 to 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Centre’s replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page

28

28

28

28

28

29

29

29

29

29

29

29

30

32

35

C 372/28

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

28.12.2001

THE COURT’S OPINION

1. This report is addressed to the Management Board of the
Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union in accor-
(EC)
dance with Article 14(4)
No 2965/94 (1).

of Council Regulation

2. The Court of Auditors has examined the financial statements
of the Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union
for the financial year ended 31 December 2000. In accordance
with Article 14(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 2965/94, the
budget was implemented under the responsibility of the director.
This responsibility includes the drawing-up and presentation of
the financial statements (2) in accordance with the internal finan-
cial provisions provided for in Article 15 of Regulation (EC)
No 2965/94. The Court of Auditors
required under
Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European Community
to examine these accounts.

is

3. The Court performed its audit in accordance with its audit
policies and standards. These have been adapted from generally
accepted international auditing standards to reflect the specific
characteristics of the Community context. The Court carried out
such tests of the accounting records and applied such other audit
procedures as it deemed necessary in the circumstances. Through
this audit the Court obtained a reasonable basis for the opinion
expressed below.

4. This examination has enabled the Court to obtain reasonable
assurance that the annual accounts for the financial year ended
31 December 2000 are reliable and that the underlying transac-
tions, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.

MAIN OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE BUDGET OF THE TRANSLATION CENTRE FOR THE
BODIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (LUXEMBOURG) FOR THE
FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2000

Implementation of the budget and budgetary accounts

5. The implementation of the budget for the financial year 2000
is shown in Table 1 (3). It should be noted that almost two thirds

(1) OJ L 314, 7.12.1994, p. 1.
(2) As

laid down in Article 14(3) of Council Regulation (EC)
No 2965/94, the accounts for all the Centre’s revenue and expendi-
ture for the financial year 2000 were drawn up on 30 March 2001
and sent to the Centre’s Management Board, the Commission and the
Court of Auditors. These accounts were received by the Court on
24 April 2001. A summarised version of these financial statements is
presented in the tables attached to this report.

(3) All the tables in this report were calculated using the most accurate
values that could be obtained from the data used. The figures pre-
sented have been rounded, which may give the impression that cal-
culation errors have been made. A hyphen indicates that no value
exists or a zero value, and 0,0 indicates a value below the rounding
threshold.

of the appropriations committed for administrative expenditure
in 2000 (Title II) had to be carried over to the following financial
year. The Centre should improve its expenditure estimates, so that
carryovers can be reduced.

Financial statements and keeping of the accounts

6. Tables 2 and 3 show, respectively, the revenue and expenditure
account for the financial year 2000 and the balance sheet as at
31 December 2000.

7. The Centre does not calculate depreciation in respect of the
items of property listed in its inventory. In order to ensure that
the balance sheet provides a more realistic picture of the Centre’s
economic situation and for its production costs to be reflected
more faithfully in the charges it applies, the Centre should calcu-
late the depreciation figure in the same manner as the Commis-
sion or other agencies.

8. The Centre made considerable efforts during 2000 to improve
and update its inventory system, but some deficiencies persist:

— there is currently no provision for identifying software and
equipment comprising whole computer units and the Centre
should examine possible solutions to this problem,

— the number of items of equipment recorded varies from one

financial year to another with no justification.

Financial and regulatory provisions

9. The Centre should precisely define responsibilities within its
organisation as regards monitoring IT projects that are to be car-
ried out by contractors. For example, in the case of one project
with a value of 1,6 million euro, 1 million euro of which was
committed in 1999 and carried over to 2000, the procedures for
managing and monitoring this sizeable project were not defined
beforehand.

10. A software purchase was committed in February 1999 on
the basis of a Commission framework contract to the value of
56 945 euro that had been concluded in 1996. It was carried over
to 2000, but had not been submitted to the Advisory Committee
on Procurements and Contracts (ACPC) for its opinion, as required
under Article 48 of the Centre’s Financial Regulation. A similar
observation was made in the past regarding the financial year
1999 (4). Furthermore, the payment order was issued in 2000 on
the basis of a subsequent framework contract containing new
products and prices.

(4) OJ C 373, 27.12.2000, paragraph 14.

28.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 372/29

In 2000, a contract to renew an existing service contract for
11.
IT products was concluded in the absence of the Financial Con-
troller’s prior approval. The latter ultimately approved the com-
mitment a posteriori. A similar case was detected in connection
with a commitment entered against 1999 appropriations which
had been carried over to 2000.

Commission, adopts the necessary implementing provisions. The
Centre’s staff policy has not been formalised in a single document.
Some of the general provisions for giving effect to the Staff Regu-
lations and the Conditions of employment of other servants have
been adopted by the Management Board for certain aspects of this
policy (staff reports, promotion and professional training).

Management

Recruitment procedures

12.
In February 2000, the Centre issued a call for tenders jointly
with another institution (1). In the end, in accordance with the
opinion of its ACPC, the Centre did not select any of the tenderers
owing to differences of opinion between it and the partner insti-
tution regarding translation-quality requirements. This situation
demonstrates the need for the Centre to agree with its partners
beforehand not only the criteria, but also the thresholds for the
admission of tenderers.

13. The Centre has no specific contract defining the terms on
which its bank accounts are managed (interest rates and bank
charges).

Follow-up to previous observations

14. The Court reiterates the wishes it has voiced in the past (2),
i.e. to see the Centre set up analytical accounts in order to be able
to establish, by body and by type of service, the real cost of the
services that it provides.

15. No progress was made in 2000 as regards the situation com-
mented on by the Court in 1997 (3), 1998 (4) and 1999 (5): the
Centre continues to occupy the premises made available to it by
the Luxembourg authorities, but no formal agreement on the
related conditions has been concluded between the parties.

Staff management

Staffing policy

17. There are generally two stages in the selection of recruits:
evaluation on the basis of a candidate’s file and then an interview.
Thirty-seven selection procedures have been conducted since the
Centre was set up. Only one selection based on written examina-
tions was held, in 1998, and it resulted in the recruitment of 22
members of staff.

18. The selection committee should establish its selection crite-
ria and their respective weightings beforehand. For example, it
was found that:

— during one selection procedure the total marks required to
pass to the next stage had not been decided in advance by the
selection committee,

— during another the minimum number of marks required for
inclusion onthe reserve list was recorded only in the selection
committee’s final report, which was drawn up on the same
date as the reserve list.

19. Thirteen selection procedures conducted between 1996 and
2000 that had been geared specifically to recruiting IT staff were
examined. Twenty of the people on the reserve lists drawn up fol-
lowing these selections were recruited by the Centre, but the
selection committees had not established beforehand the mini-
mum marks required to be eligible to pass to the next stage of
selection. In five cases the candidates recruited had obtained the
lowest marks.

Description of duties

20. Pursuant to Article 44 (1)a of the Centre’s Financial Regula-
tion, there must be a job description for each category A or LA
post. No such descriptions exist other than for six category B and
C staff.

16. The Centre’s staff is subject to the Regulations and Rules
applicable to officials and other servants of the European Com-
munities. As
laid down in Article 17(3) of Regulation
No 2965/94, the Management Board, in agreement with the

Growth in the Centre’s staff and activities

(1) The European Parliament.
(2) OJ C 373, 27.12.2000, p.21, paragraph 10; OJ C 393, 29.12.1997,
p.47, paragraph 1.6; OJ C 406, 28.12.1998, p.33, paragraph 1.6.

(3) OJ C 406, 28.12.1998, p.33, paragraph 1.13.
(4) OJ C 372, 22.12.1999, p.20, paragraph 18.
(5) OJ C 373, 27.12.2000, p.22, paragraph 15.

21. The only staff employed under the Staff Regulations at the
Centre are temporary staff (TS), for whom the number of posts is
authorised by the budgetary authority each year at the same time
as the budget. Moreover, appropriations may be granted under
the budget for the recruitment of auxiliary employees (AE), who
may be employed for a maximum of one year.

C 372/30

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

28.12.2001

22. Table 4 shows the growth in the Centre’s staff over the period
1995 to 2000, with a breakdown by category. The increase in
staff has tended to tail off over time, as the Centre has gradually
approached its fully operational stage. In parallel, the proportion
of auxiliary staff is tending to decline.

23. Of the 185 staff recruited by the Centre since it was set up,
106 were recruited as temporaries and 79 as auxiliaries. Taking
account of staff who have left, at the end of 2000, out of 130 staff
in active employment, 125 were temporary staff and 5 auxiliaries.
Most of the temporary staff were taken on following recruitment
campaigns conducted by advertising within the institutions and
the other satellite bodies, in the press or on the Centre’s website.
Out of 79 auxiliary staff recruited by the Centre, 40 acquired tem-
porary status, 19 of them following an internal recruitment pro-
cedure.

24. Table 5 analyses the trend in recruitment according to the
procedure applied and reveals that none of these recruitments
was carried out using a standard open competition procedure as
per the model advocated for the Community institutions, which
offers the broadest guarantees as regards the quality and transpar-
ency of the procedures. On average, recruitment costs amounted
to some 470 euro per person recruited.

25. Departures have resulted in an average annual staff turnover
rate (temporary and auxiliary staff) of 13 % (see Table 5), which is
due to de facto termination of contract by the persons concerned
in 40 % of cases and to contract expiry in the remainder.

26. The Court’s examination of a sample of 14 officials revealed
no problems regarding their professional suitability for the duties
involved.

27. For the purposes of the audit, staff were placed in two cat-
egories:

30. The Court’s analysis of staff-related costs also focused more
specifically on expenditure on professional training (PT) and
administrative expenditure, especially on IT. Expenditure on pro-
fessional training increased at a faster rate than staff numbers, due
to the Centre’s policy in this area. There has also been a rise in
actual administrative expenditure, due to the Centre’s heavy invest-
ment in IT. In 2000, 24 people, including external consultants, i.e.
a ratio of one to five for all staff, were working exclusively in the
IT sector.

31.
In order to obtain a better understanding of the relationship
between the Centre’s activities and the increase in its staff and the
related costs, the increase in staff and related costs was compared
with the increase in revenue collected by the Centre over a year.
Given that revenue also reflects the increase in charges made by
the Centre, the number of pages translated by it was also selected
as an activity indicator, since the volume of translations is rela-
tively homogeneous and can therefore be considered representa-
tive of the Centre’s activities.

32. The comparison between the increase in the Centre’s rev-
enue and that in its staff and the related costs suggests that the
Centre’s management is managing to increase its revenue faster
than the rate at which its staff and the costs of employing them
are increasing. The comparison of the variations in the Centre’s
volume of activities and number of staff, as well as the related
costs, provides a picture with more light and shade. Overall, there
is a parallel between the increase in the workload and that in staff.
However, salary costs are tending to rise slightly faster because of
automatic salary increases. The Centre should ensure that it con-
tinues its efforts to improve its general productivity.

33. A comparison made between the number of pages trans-
lated or revised in 2000 and the staff working in the various lan-
guage sections has revealed variations in these sections’ output.
The output of four sections in particular (1) was markedly lower
than the average output level in quantitative terms. The Centre
should monitor this situation and, should it persist, make the nec-
essary adjustments.

— those responsible for support activities (support staff), i.e.
activities necessary for the continuity of the Centre’s opera-
tions (e.g. administration, accounts, secretariat, etc.),

— other,

‘operational’, staff, who are directly involved in the

achievement of the Centre’s objectives.

Conclusion

It was found that almost all category A staff may be termed
28.
‘operational’ and that, all categories combined, 60 % of staff are
covered by this definition.

34. Generally speaking, it is clear that, even though the Centre
has, from the beginning, been unable to recruit all the staff it has
requested during the budgetary procedures, this has had no sig-
nificant effect on the development of its activities. Various pos-
sible reasons might explain this situation:

— a degree of inaccuracy in the estimates of requirements,

29. Table 6 shows the increase in staff-related costs and admin-
istrative expenditure. The rise in salary costs over the period 1997
to 2000 outstripped the increase in staff. This discrepancy may be
attributed in part to the changeover from auxiliary to temporary
status.

(1) The percentages for the German, English, Spanish and Dutch lan-
guage sections were, respectively, 18 %, 13 %, 9 % and 8 % lower than
the average for all eleven sections.

28.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 372/31

— a cautious approach, in case there is a slow-down in requests

for translations.

35. The Centre’s staff recruitment methods are based on adver-
tising of vacant posts on its website and in the press and such
advertising is often conducted only within the institutions and the
other satellite bodies. Some 20 % of the temporary staff currently
employed were originally recruited as auxiliaries. At the moment,
the overwhelming majority of staff have temporary status.

36. Given the expected increase in the Centre’s activities and its
staff, it might be preferable for the Centre to join forces with the

institutions and other satellite bodies so that its recruitment is car-
ried out on the broadest and strictest basis possible, especially in
the case of posts connected with support activities. Coordination
of recruitment is particularly necessary in the light of the Centre’s
plans to make part of its staff permanent.

37. The Centre should ensure that its overall productivity is
improved. In particular, efforts should be made to determine its
staff’s productivity more accurately and it should continue to
ensure that expenditure on training and in the field of IT helps to
improve productivity. In general, it should also improve its staff
management and information system.

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at the Court meeting of 10 October 2001.

For the Court of Auditors

Jan O. KARLSSON

President

C 372/32

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

28.12.2001

TABLES 1 TO 6

Table 1

Implementation of the budget

Title

I — Staff

Budget 2000
Carryovers 1999

II — Administration

Budget 2000
Carryovers 1999

III — Operations

Budget 2000
Carryovers 1999

Total

Budget 2000
Carryovers 1999

Total

Total

Total

Total

Appropria-
tions

Commitments

Payments

%

Carryovers

Cancellations

%

(Mio EUR)

(a)

15,6
0,9

16,5

2,7
2,2

4,9

2,4

2,4

20,7
3,1

23,7

(b)

13,5
0,9

14,4

2,4
2,2

4,5

0,0
0,0

0,0

15,9
3,1

18,9

Table 2

(c)

12,6
0,9

13,5

0,8
1,8

2,7

0,0

0,0

13,5
2,7

16,2

(d=c/b)

93 %
98 %

94 %

36 %
84 %

59 %

85 %
88 %

85 %

(f)

0,9

0,9

1,5

1,5

0,0

0,0

2,4

2,4

(g=a-c-f)

(h=g/a)

2,1
0,0

2,1

0,4
0,3

0,7

2,4
0,0

2,4

4,8
0,4

5,2

13 %
2 %

13 %

14 %
16 %

15 %

100 %

100 %

23 %
12 %

22 %

Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2000 and 1999

(1 000 EUR)

2000

1999

—
21 264
263

Total revenue

21 527

Revenue
Commission subsidy
Own revenue
Miscellaneous revenue (bank interest)

Expenditure
Staff expenditure — Title I of the budget
Payments
Appropriations carried over

12 640
881

849
1 512

—
—

Buildings, equipment and miscellaneous administrative expenditure — Title II of the budget
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Operating expenditure — Title III of the budget
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Total expenditure

15 882

Outturn for the financial year
Balance carried over from the previous financial year
Repayment to Europol
Appropriations carried over from the previous financial year which lapse
Contingency reserve
Exchange-rate differences

5 645
1 854
– 217
358
– 2 653
– 10

Balance for the financial year

4 977

NB: There may be disparities in the totals, due to rounding.
Source: Presentation prepared by the Court of Auditors on the basis of data compiled by the Centre.

—
13 760
250

14 010

10 363
871

727
2 182

—
—

14 143

– 133
5 062
– 3 632
566
0
– 9

1 854

28.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 372/33

Balance sheet as at 31 December 2000 and 31 December 1999

Table 3

Assets

2000

1999

Liabilities

2000

1999

(1 000 EUR)

Fixed assets
Furniture and equipment
IT
Intangible fixed assets

Current assets
Sums to be recovered
Sundry accounts receivable

Cash accounts
Banks — Demand accounts
Cash

182
892
44

Subtotal

1 118

Subtotal

3 190
711

3 901

10 724
0

Subtotal

10 724

108
428
39

575

4 133
479

4 612

5 299
0

5 299

Fixed capital
Own capital
Balance for the financial year
Contingency reserve

Current liabilities
Automatic carryovers of appropriations
Advances received
Sums to be recovered
Sundry accounts payable

Suspense accounts
Revenue for reuse

1 118
4 977
2 653

8 748

2 393
1 127
3 191
271

6 982

13

13

575
1 854
0

2 429

3 053
836
4 133
23

8 045

12

12

Subtotal

Subtotal

Subtotal

Total assets

15 743

10 486

Total liabilities

15 743

10 486

NB: Differences in the totals are due to rounding.
Source: Presentation prepared by the Court of Auditors on the basis of data compiled by the Centre.

Table 4

Increases in staff

Establishment plan

Posts occupied

Other staff

TS

8
23
48
112
131
144

1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000

TS: Temporary staff.
AS: Auxiliary staff.

TS

1
18
44
86
116
125

AS

0
4
19
13
3
5

Total

1
22
63
99
119
130

Table 5

Analysis of the change in the number of staff

Increase

Decrease

Competition

Other

Total

Expiry of contract

Termination of
contract

Total

1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000

Total

0
0
0
0
0
0

0

1
23
43
61
32
25

1
23
43
61
32
25

185

185

0
2
0
19
7
5

33

0
0
2
6
5
9

22

0
2
2
25
12
14

55

Net change

Turnover
(%)

1
21
41
36
20
11

—

0 %
9 %
3 %
25 %
10 %
11 %

13 %

Table 6

Increase in staff and related costs

Salary costs

Total staff

Direct (1)

Indirect (2)

Total

Other
salary-
related
costs (3)

Overall
total (4)

Salary costs/head

Other staff-related costs

Administrative expenditure

Direct

Indirect

Total

PT (5)

PT/head

Recruitment
and
installation

Total

Of which
IT (6)

Total/head

IT/head

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

1

22

63

99

119

130

26,6

681,3

2 357,0

5 416,8

4 995,6

7 423,3

1,0

32,6

110,9

216,9

287,5

394,8

27,5

713,9

145,6

736,3

173,1

1 450,3

2 467,9

2 877,5

5 345,4

5 633,7

5 270,4

10 904,1

5 283,0

2 409,5

7 692,6

7 818,1

5 404,1

13 222,3

26,6

31,0

37,4

54,7

42,0

57,1

1,0

1,5

1,8

2,2

2,4

3,0

27,5

32,5

39,2

56,9

44,4

60,1

0,0

0,0

1,4

23,2

11,6

25,2

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,2

0,1

0,2

0,0

59,9

143,9

237,2

203,5

118,4

2,2

351,9

1 004,5

1 281,4

0,0

4,0

203,8

756,1

1 589,9

1 067,0

2 688,2

2 172,8

2,2

16,0

15,9

12,9

13,4

20,7

0,0

0,2

3,2

7,6

9,0

16,7

(1 000 EUR)

(1) Salaries paid to staff in active employment (all categories taken together).
(2) Social benefits and other salary adjustments.
(3) Overtime and supplementary services.
(4) Expenditure related to salaries under Title I, excluding mission expenses, etc.
(5) PT: Professional training.
(6) IT: Expenditure on informatics.

C
3
7
2
/
3
4

E
N

O

f
f
i
c
i
a
l

J
o
u
r
n
a
l

o
f

t
h
e

E
u
r
o
p
e
a
n
C
o
m
m
u
n
i
t
i
e
s

.

2
8
1
2
2
0
0
1

.

28.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 372/35

THE CENTRE’S REPLIES

Budgetary implementation and budgetary accounts

Management

5. The amount of the appropriations carried over for Title II cor-
responds principally to the contracts being implemented at the
end of the year relating to the development of the computer sys-
tems. The Centre intends to continue its efforts to improve its
budgetary estimates and the implementation thereof.

13. Since its creation, for reasons of efficiency, the Centre has
followed the conditions of the Commission’s contract for bank-
ing services. The Centre envisages the launch of an invitation to
tender for financial (banking) services in its work programme for
2001.

Financial statements and keeping of the accounts

Follow-up to previous observations

7. The Centre shares the Court’s opinion concerning the account-
ing of depreciation allowances. In accordance with its Founding
Regulation, the Centre must become self-financing through pass-
ing on all its costs to its customers in return for the services pro-
vided.

The Centre will present, with the 2001 accounts, the calculation
of depreciation as well as proposals for taking it into account in
the calculation of prices.

14.
In 2000, the Centre launched the implementation of an ana-
lytical accounting system integrated with the SI2 budgetary
accounting system. The results obtained will enable the costs of
activities to be identified, as requested by our supervisory institu-
tion in coordination with the other agencies.

15. On 27 April 2001, the Luxembourg authorities expressed
their intention of discussing this subject, as well as the agreement
on the seat and security, once the financing project for the per-
manent premises of the Centre had been drawn up.

8. The Centre will continue to improve its inventory system, in
particular by defining criteria to assess the computer applications
developed by the Centre. Some of the inconsistencies detected by
the Court in relation to the previous years were due to errors in
the initial encoding which were discovered once the update was
carried out.

Staff management

Recruitment procedures

Financial and regulatory provisions

9. The Centre takes good note of the Court’s remarks, and will
formalise the definition of responsibilities relating to the follow-up
to computer projects for the case in which several departments
are concerned.

10. Following the remark by the Court of Auditors in its report
concerning the budgetary implementation of
the financial
year 1999 (OJ C 373 of 27.12.2000), all use of the framework
contracts of the other institutions are now submitted for opinion
to the ACPC of the Centre, which was not the case in 1999.

18. The Centre prefers to put greater emphasis on the suitability
between the profile sought and the candidates’ knowledge and
experience rather than fixing a minimum of points in advance in
order to make the candidate eligible for the next stage of the pro-
cedure. This is because the fact of establishing such a rule could
result in the non-recruitment of valuable candidates, and the need
to repeat selection procedures several times over, which runs
counter to the principle of good financial management.

19.
In the five cases raised by the Court, the candidates demon-
strated suitable knowledge for the job proposed throughout the
selection procedure, in the opinion of the selection committee.

Growth of the Centre’s staff and activities

11.
In the case mentioned by the Court of Auditors, the late for-
malisation of the commitment was due to reasons known to and
accepted by the Centre’s Financial Controller, even though approval
was given a posteriori, notably in order to await new, more
favourable prices. This wait was confirmed in reality.

23. The only selection procedure published internally was also
open to external candidates. The exceptional decision to publish
this selection procedure in a more restrictive manner was based
on the fact that one of the conditions for selection was knowledge
of the Translator’s Workbench.

C 372/36

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

28.12.2001

24. The recruitment of temporary staff differs from the recruit-
ment of officials in so far as the Staff Regulations do not provide
any specific provision governing the recruitment procedure for
temporary staff.

Furthermore, pursuant
to the Joint Statement by Council
and the Commission (Statement 3), annexed to Council
Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 of 28 November 1994 setting up a
Translation Centre for bodies of the European Union, the Council
and the Commission consider that, ‘in view of its tasks and the
structure of its budget, the Translation Centre should make use of
staff management procedures that are as flexible as possible with-
out jeopardising the performance of its role’.

26. The Centre welcomes the observation made by the Court
that the staff recruited had profiles suitable for the duties involved.

30. The Centre is particularly interested in training its staff,
because today, as established in Article 24(3) of the Staff Regula-
tions, continuous vocational training is the most recognised way
to develop skills.

For 2001, the percentage of the total payroll earmarked for voca-
tional training is 0,74 %. If this figure is compared with the
amounts of the other decentralised agencies, it is clear that the
Centre’s rate is below those of the other agencies, as well as below
the 1,4 % recommended by the Commission. The Centre has spent
a total of EUR 216 per staff member. This cost represents EUR 0,10
per page translated.

The distribution of tasks and staff between the Computer Depart-
ment and the Translation Department responds to the Centre’s
needs in relation to the translation requests of its customers, its
work rationalisation strategy and its continuous search for the
most advanced translation tools. The staff employed by the Centre
in the field of computing meets its needs.

32 to 33. The Centre believes that individual performance must
be examined with certain reservations since it is subject to fac-
tors that are difficult to foresee (sickness, types of document, ter-
minological difficulties, etc.). For this reason, this criterion is of
little use to the overall management of the translation depart-
ments, but must rather serve exclusively for the development of
the professional career of staff members.

On the other hand, since its creation in 1995, the Centre has pro-
duced and published overall productivity statistics in its annual
reports, for performance management purposes.

Furthermore, in the benchmarking studies on the translation ser-
vices of the European Union known to the Centre (e.g. ‘Transla-
tion statistics — Interinstitutional Translation Committee’ and
‘Report on compared productivity of translation services — Price-
WaterhouseCoopers 2000’), the analysis is based on the compa-
rability of the overall and average productivity rates of each insti-
tution or body. In these studies, even though the calculation
methods may vary, the result is always the same: the Centre’s pro-
ductivity compares favourably with that of the other translation
services analysed, i.e. those of all the other European institutions.

Conclusion

35. The Centre recruits temporary staff on the broadest and
strictest basis possible in order to recruit staff with the highest
level of skills, productivity and integrity, in strict compliance with
the provisions of Articles 8 to 15 of the CEOS.

37. Since its creation, the Centre has always striven to improve
its overall productivity, with satisfactory results up to now for the
Management Board and its customers (see the Centre’s reply to
point 33).