Report on the annual accounts of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training for the 2003 financial year together with the Centre's replies
Date: 2004-09-30
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Cedefop, European Court of Auditors, administration of the Institutions, financial control, interinstitutional relations (EU), operating result, report

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/53

on the annual accounts of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational
Training for the 2003 financial year together with the Centre’s replies

REPORT

(2004/C 324/08)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

OBSERVATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

2-5

6-12

Tables 1 to 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

54

54

54

56

60

Paragraph

Page

C 324/54

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

INTRODUCTION

OBSERVATIONS

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational
1.
Training (the Centre) was established by Council Regulation (EEC)
No 337/75 (1). Its core mandate is to serve the development of
vocational training at Community level. In order to achieve this
objective, it has the task of compiling and disseminating docu-
mentation on vocational training systems. The Centre’s powers
and activities are summarised, on the basis of information sub-
mitted by the Centre, in Table 1.

THE COURT’S OPINION

2.
This opinion is addressed to the Council and the European
Parliament in accordance with Article 185(2) of Council Regula-
tion (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (2).

3.
The Court has examined the Centre’s annual accounts for
the financial year ended 31 December 2003. In accordance with
Article 12a(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 337/75, the Cen-
tre’s budget was implemented on the responsibility of its Direc-
tor. This responsibility includes the drawing-up and presentation
of the accounts (3), in accordance with the internal financial pro-
visions provided for in Article 12 of the same Regulation. The
Court of Auditors is required under Article 248 of the Treaty
establishing the European Community to audit those accounts.

The Court performed its audit in accordance with its audit-
4.
ing policies and standards, which have been adapted from gener-
ally accepted international auditing standards to reflect the spe-
cific nature of
It examined the
the Community context.
accounting documents and applied the audit procedures that it
considered necessary in that context.

The Court has thus obtained reasonable assurance that the
5.
annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003
are reliable and that the underlying transactions, taken as a whole,
are legal and regular. The content of the following observations
does not call the audit opinion expressed by the Court in this
report into question.

(1) OJ L 39, 13.2.1975, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) As required under Article 63 of the Centre’s financial regulation, the
final accounts for the financial year 2003 were drawn up on 1 Sep-
tember 2004 and forwarded to the Court of Auditors. They were
received by the Court on 17 September 2004. A summarised version
of these accounts is presented in the tables annexed to this report.

6.
The implementation of the appropriations for the 2003
financial year, and of the appropriations carried over from the
previous year, is set out in Table 2. The Centre’s revenue and
expenditure account and balance sheet for the financial year 2003
are presented in summary form in Tables 3 and 4.

7.
In 2003 the Centre received Phare subsidies and contribu-
tions from third countries (4) amounting to 791 844 euro. Con-
trary to the principles of budgetary unity and accuracy, the Cen-
tre did not use an amending budget to include the amount of
these 2003 subsidies in its budget.

8.
The Centre’s new financial regulation and the detailed rules
for its implementation were adopted by the Management Board
on 31 March 2003. These rules (5) specify that a new internal
audit system is to be set up. Changes to the Centre’s financial
organisation and its accounting system were not yet complete at
the end of the year.

9.
In accordance with Article 28(2)(e) of the Centre’s finan-
cial regulation, the accounting officer is to validate the systems
laid down by the authorising officer to supply or justify account-
ing information. There has been no such validation.

The Centre has set up a ‘contracts unit’ to ensure that
10.
contracts to be awarded for studies are correct, but this unit is not
informed about the procedures that are under way until the selec-
tion reports have been signed. It is unable to do anything to pre-
vent irregularities at the initial stages (choice of procedure, exami-
nation of invitations to tender and publicity measures). Extending
this unit’s powers appears especially necessary insofar as a study
of various files has brought to light inconsistencies and formal
errors in the management of contract award procedures.

11.
In 2003 the Centre had a list of potential contractors fol-
lowing a call for expressions of interest (CEI) which was issued in
2000. This list was drawn up and centralised under the authority
of the permanent Chairman of the Evaluation Boards. By means
of this list, the Centre was able to launch a restricted procedure
among the potential contractors on the list, without the need to
publish or declare selection criteria, up to a maximum value of
around 163 000 euro (6). Five files on restricted procedures using
CEIs were examined.
In three cases (total contract value:
79 800 euro) giving rise to payments in 2003, the successful con-
tractors did not appear on this list and no explanation was given
for this situation. In view of this finding, the relevance of the
existence of such a list of contractors could be called into ques-
tion. The Court notes, moreover, that as the list has not been
updated, the Centre gives a somewhat inconsistent picture of its
selection procedures.

(4) Participation by Norway.
(5) Article 25 of the Centre’s new financial regulation.
(6) See Article 128(1) of the Regulation laying down detailed rules for the

implementation of the financial regulation.

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/55

On examination, recruitment files and a number of indi-
12.
vidual files were found to have formal and documentary short-
comings which prevented the necessary transparency with regard

to the decisions taken on recruitment and the financial impact of
those decisions when calculating pay.

This Report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 29 and 30 September
2004.

For the Court of Auditors
Juan Manuel FABRA VALLÉS
President

C 324/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

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EN

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C 324/58

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training — Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2003 and 2002

Table 3

2003

2002

(1 000 euro)

Revenue
Commission subsidies
Revenue from previous financial years
Miscellaneous revenue
Assigned revenue (Phare and third countries)
Financial revenue

Budgetary expenditure for the financial year

Staff — Title I of the budget
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Administration — Title II of the budget
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Operating activities — Title III of the budget (except for assigned revenue)
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Assigned revenue (Phare and third countries)
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Total revenue (a)

14 500
0
3
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15 295

7 554
443

778
358

2 381
3 138

546
246

Total expenditure (b)

15 444

Outturn for the financial year (a – b)

Balance carried over from the previous financial year
Appropriations carried over and cancelled
Sums for reuse from the previous financial year not used
Refunds to the Commission
Exchange-rate differences

Source:

information supplied by the Centre. This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its own accounts.

Balance for the financial year

– 149

– 545
399
10
– 716
8

– 993

12 135
25
3
333
50

12 546

7 570
298

767
345

2 491
2 189

0
187

13 847

– 1 301

532
215
8
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1

– 545

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/59

European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training — Balance sheet at 31 December 2003 and 31 December 2002

Table 4

Assets

2003

2002

Liabilities

2003

2002

(1 000 euro)

Fixed assets (1)

Intangible fixed assets

Buildings

Fixed capital

14

0

Own capital

5 179

5 351

Balance for the financial year

5 704

– 993

Equipment and furniture

Financial fixed assets, guarantee

471

5

616

Subtotal

4 711

5

Long-term liabilities

6 007

– 545

5 462

277

277

Stocks

Office equipment

Long-term assets

Staff loans

Commission subsidy

Current assets

Commission

Other advances

Recoverable VAT

Sundry accounts receivable

Cash accounts

Bank accounts (2)

Cash

Imprest account

Subtotal

5 669

5 972

Liabilities on assigned revenue

Subtotal

0

0

Subtotal

Subtotal

35

35

3

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3

35

35

9

277

286

Current liabilities

Liabilities on assigned revenue not received

315

661

Appropriations carried over against Titles I, II
and III

3 939

2 832

Appropriations carried over against assigned
revenue

Recoverable amounts

Sundry accounts payable

VAT/other taxes

382

0

86

90

64

238

1 615

121

73

0

315

2 276

Bank interest to be returned to the EU

37

34

81

94

23

Suspense accounts

124

Current payments

Subtotal

467

2 517

Sums to be reused

3 532

2 830

5

33

4

90

Subtotal

3 570

2 924

Total

9 744

11 734

Subtotal

4 876

5 540

0

157

157

226

229

455

Subtotal

Total

9 744

11 734

(1) Fixed assets are shown net. The figures for 2002 have therefore been recalculated for purposes of comparison.
(2) The substantial volume of funds in bank accounts at the end of the financial year is due to the payments made by the Commission to finance transactions for which the

appropriations were carried over to the following financial year.

Source:

information supplied by the Centre. This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its own accounts.

C 324/60

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

THE CENTRE’S REPLIES

The Centre ought indeed to have formalised the receipt of
7.
funds relating to the subsidy from the non-member countries and
to the ‘Phare’ contract by means of a supplementary and amend-
ing budget.

The necessary financial adaptation due to the financial
8.
reform began in 2003 and should be completed in 2005. As
regards the adaptation of the accounting system, the Centre is
making the necessary changes in accordance with the priorities
set.

9.
It is correct that the accounting system has still not been
validated. This is due to the changes that must still be made to
fully implement the accounting reform. The validation should
take place in the course of 2005.

10.
The Reform and the complexity of procurement and
contract management issues in conjunction with the difficulties
presented by a decentralised modus operandi reinforced the need
for a centralised system of procurement and contract manage-
ment operations. In this regard, and following the Director’s Deci-
sion 2004/1, the Legal and Contract Management Service is solely
in charge of direct centralised procurement and contract manage-
ment at Cedefop and in this capacity takes care of and transacts
all formal, legal and administrative tasks related to all stages and
aspects of procurement at Cedefop. Finally, and as evidenced by
the documentation provided to the Court of Auditors, the Centre
would like to stress that the procedures which led to the award-
ing of all contracts were in compliance with the applicable rules.

contracts

Regarding

2002/0117

(EUR 22 483),
11.
2002/0143 (EUR 25 000) and 2003/0069 (EUR 32 257,50),
Cedefop would like to point out that (a) contracts 2002/0117 and
2002/0143 concern the year 2002 (b) contracts 2002/0117 and
2003/0069 were awarded to the same contractor, and (c) all con-
tracts at issue here are low-value contracts.

The lists of those invited to tender which led to the awarding of
the three abovementioned contracts were based on the entire
pool of qualified potential contractors resulting from the Call for
Expressions of Interest Cedefop No AMI/VET/2000-1. As sub-
stantiated by data provided to the auditors, these invitations to
tender were addressed to organisations/individuals selected on the
basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria specific to the
nature of each contract, as foreseen in the applicable rules, and
not to all potential contractors in the above pool. The contrac-
tors at issue here, as evidenced jure et facto by the data provided
to the Court of Auditors, were accepted as qualified potential con-
tractors in the framework of the aforementioned Call for Expres-
sions of Interest. Even though their names did not appear on the
list presented to the auditors (as a result of difficulties related to
decentralised operations at that time), their status as qualified
potential contractors cannot be disputed. The Centre would like
to stress that the procedures which led to the awarding of the
contracts at issue were in compliance with the applicable rules.

The observations will be taken into account in the draw-
the

internal procedures by

adaptation of

12.
ing up or
Administration.