WRITTEN QUESTION E-2236/02 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Award of Commission contracts to audit firms.
Date: 2002-07-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, administration of the Institutions, administrative expenditure (EU), audit, consultancy, contract, invitation to tender, private sector

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/1

I

(Information)

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

WRITTEN QUESTIONS WITH ANSWER
(Part 1)

(2004/C 88 E/0001)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2236/02

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Award of Commission contracts to audit firms

(23 July 2002)

I gather from Mrs Schreyer’s answer to Written Questions E-0372/02, P-0443/02 and E-0450/02 (1) that
the Commission awarded contracts in 1999-2001 for a total value of EUR 77 million to the private
auditing firms of KPMG, Andersen Group, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

1.

Can the Commission provide me with a full and detailed list of these contracts, stating for each one:

(a)

the subject of the contract;

(b)

the agreed fee;

(c) whether the contract was the subject of a proper tendering procedure in accordance with the Financial

Regulation?

2.
Can the Commission explain why contracts of this magnitude were given to private firms, even
though the Commission has its own audit services and is also subject to detailed auditing by the European
Court of Auditors?

(1) OJ C 229 E, 26.9.2002, p. 82.

Supplementary answer
given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(26 April 2004)

1. Management of contracts is the responsibility of the local contract managers within each Directorate-
General (DG). The decentralised organisation of contract management has proved to be the most efficient
approach as local managers have the information on requirements and conditions that govern the
execution of individual contracts. Each service is responsible for ensuring that proper tendering procedures
are adhered to.

In view of the volume of information requested and the time needed to analyse the files, the data requested
by the Honourable Member are not currently available.

However, the Commission has decided to develop a central contracts and contractors database, Interactive
Contracts Network Database (ICON-DB). The work is progressing well. Centralised and consolidated
statistics, broken down by Commission department, will thus be available, in due course, more rapidly.

C 88 E/2

Official Journal of the European Union

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8.4.2004

The Honourable Member may be aware of the tight staffing situation in the Commission.

2.
The use of selected management consultants is a way of enlisting the services of specialists who have
in-depth expertise and have also probably performed comparable tasks in similar public or private
organisations. Their combination of skills enables them to contribute a new and different perspective,
which is both useful and necessary for dealing with specific dossiers.

Like many international and national public institutions, the Commission occasionally avails itself of the
services of private accountancy and consultancy firms to get their advice. However, the contracts to which
the Honourable Member is referring cover a wide range of consultancy activities, with audit being only a
part. Where such companies have been called in to audit particular projects or programmes, such as in
research, this is not meant to replace the external audit work of the Court, but to provide the authorising
officer with assurance regarding the regularity of the expenditure claimed by beneficiaries.

(2004/C 88 E/0002)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0043/03

by Gian Gobbo (NI) to the Commission

(14 January 2003)

Subject: Introduction of a minimum rate of excise duty on wine

The Commission has apparently drafted a proposal aimed at introducing a minimum rate of excise duty on
wine of EUR 0,14 per litre (LIT 270) from 2003 and EUR 0,15 from 2007.

This would constitute a further fiscal and bureaucratic burden on one of the most advanced sectors of
European agriculture and one of the most competitive at world level.

In many EU countries, including Italy, there is no excise duty on wine and thus its introduction, far from
constituting harmonisation of the tax system, would actually represent the levying of a new tax.

Does the Commission not consider that the introduction of excise duty on wine might put producers at a
disadvantage?

Does it not consider it worthwhile to safeguard and promote European wine production, which has its
roots in our civilisation’s most distant past and is an integral part of Europe’s cultural and religious
imagery?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(30 January 2003)

Council Directive 92/84/EEC, of 19 October 1992, deals with the approximation of rates of excise duty on
alcohol and alcoholic beverages (1). Under its provisions it is necessary for the excise duty rates laid down
in that Directive to be reviewed periodically by Council. This review shall be based upon a Commission
report.

The Commission is preparing such a report at present, which will take into account all relevant issues, in
particular the proper functioning of the internal market, competition between the different categories of
alcoholic drinks, the real value of the rates of duty and the wider objectives of the EC Treaty, as provided
by Article 8 of the said Directive. These considerations will also include the situation of producers and the
other elements mentioned by the Honourable Member.

(1) OJ L 316, 31.10.1992.