Report on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the 2003 financial year together with the Office's replies
Date: 2004-09-30
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Community Plant Variety Office, 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 324/99

on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the 2003 financial
year together with the Office’s replies

REPORT

(2004/C 324/14)

CONTENTS

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

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

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

Paragraph

1

2-5

6-10

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

The Office’s replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page

100

100

100

101

105

C 324/100

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

INTRODUCTION

1.
The Community Plant Variety Office (hereinafter referred
to as the Office) was created by Council Regulation (EC)
No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 (1). Its main purpose is to register
and examine applications for the grant of Community industrial
property rights for plant varieties and to ensure that the neces-
sary technical examinations are carried out by the competent
offices in the Member States. Table 1 summarises the powers and
responsibilities of the Office on the basis of the information sup-
plied by it.

THE COURT’S OPINION

2.
This opinion is addressed to the Administrative Council of
the Office, pursuant to Article 111(2) of Council Regulation (EC)
No 2100/94.

3.
The Court has examined the Office’s annual accounts for
the financial year ended 31 December 2003. In accordance with
Article 110 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94, the Office’s
budget was implemented on the responsibility of its President.
This responsibility includes the drawing-up and presentation of
the accounts (2) in accordance with the internal financial provi-
sions adopted on the basis of Article 112 of Council Regulation
(EC) No 2100/94. The Court is required under Article 248 of the
Treaty establishing the European Community to examine these
accounts.

4.
The Court carried out its audit in accordance with its
auditing policies and standards. These have been adapted from
generally accepted international auditing standards to reflect the
specific nature of the Community context. It examined the
accounting documents and applied the auditing procedures it
considered necessary in the context.

5.
The Court has thus obtained reasonable assurance that the
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 into question the audit opinion expressed by the
Court in this report.

OBSERVATIONS

The implementation of the appropriations for the 2003
6.
financial year and of the appropriations carried over from the pre-
vious year is shown in Table 2. The revenue and expenditure
account and the balance sheet published by the Office for the
financial year 2003 are shown in summary form in Tables 3 and 4.

7.
Article 8 of the Office’s new financial regulation provides
that the budget shall contain differentiated appropriations, which
make a distinction between commitment appropriations and pay-
ment appropriations. Even though the 2003 budget was adopted
before the new rules and only contains non-differentiated appro-
priations, at the moment of closure of the accounts the Office
considered the appropriations under Title III, which finance its
operations, to be differentiated. In order to take this approach, the
Office ought to have adopted an amending budget that distin-
guished, with appropriate comments, between the commitment
appropriations and the payment appropriations. This was not the
case.

The balance sheet

8.
shows an unrecovered sum of
216 048 euro of VAT paid between 1997 and 2001. Most of this
sum (206 553 euro) may be attributed to requests for repayment
which have been refused by the French authorities. The Office
should first examine the possible legal means of recovering this
sum and then make the necessary adjustments.

9.
Article 42(1)(e) of the Office’s financial regulation provides
that the accounting officer shall validate the systems laid down by
the authorising officer to supply or justify accounting informa-
tion. This validation has not yet taken place.

10.
The Office’s accounting system is made up of three com-
puterised systems, one for the administration of applications for
the grant of Community plant variety rights (PVR), one for the
budgetary accounts (SI2) and one for the general accounts. The
Office ought to work towards integrating these systems, so as to
eliminate themany minor errors thatarise from the use of non-
accounting procedures that multiply the number of data acquisi-
tion operations.

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

(1) OJ L 227, 1.9.1994, p. 27.
(2) In accordance with Article 111(2) of Council Regulation (EC)
No 2100/94, the accounts for all the Office’s revenue and expendi-
ture for the financial year 2003 were drawn up on 25 March 2004
and forwarded to the Court of Auditors. The Court received these
accounts on 24 September 2004. A summarised version of these
accounts is presented in the tables attached to this report.

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/101

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EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

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30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/103

Community Plant Variety Office — Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2003 and 2002

Table 3

Total revenue (a)

Revenue
Own revenue
Miscellaneous revenue
Financial revenue

Expenditure

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
Payments
Appropriations carried over

Total expenditure (b)

Outturn for the financial year (a – b)

Balance carried over from the previous financial year
Appropriations carried over and cancelled
Exchange-rate differences
Future provision

NB: The totals may include differences due to rounding.
Source:

information supplied by the Office. These tables summarise the data provided by the Office in its own accounts.

Balance for the financial year

2003

8 199
156
401

8 757

3 245
98

583
195

1 179
4 863

10 164

– 1 407

13 977
249
0
5

12 825

(1 000 euro)

2002

8 564
61
615

9 240

2 807
26

570
163

975
3 699

8 239

1 001

11 029
1 949
– 3
0

13 977

C 324/104

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

Community Plant Variety Office — Balance sheet at 31 December 2003 and 31 December 2002

Table 4

Assets

2003

2002

Liabilities

2003

2002

(1 000 euro)

Fixed assets

Computer software

Buildings

Computer equipment

Equipment and furniture

Depreciation

Fixed capital

78

68

Own capital

2 538

2 503

2 427

2 404

219

161

229

140

– 345

– 338

Reserve

Balance for the financial year

Current liabilities

13 977

11 029

– 1 153

2 948

Subtotal

15 363

16 480

Indemnities and guarantees

3

0

Automatic carry-overs

Subtotal

2 538

2 503

Outstanding commitments in respect of
carry-overs from 2002

Suppliers

Advances from customers

VAT to be paid

Deductions from salaries

Current assets

Recovery orders

Sundry accounts receivable

VAT to be recovered

Cash accounts

Banks

Imprest account

3

29

371

403

51

24

384

459

Subtotal

20 065

18 103

75

75

Subtotal

20 140

18 178

Total

23 084

21 141

NB: The totals may include differences due to rounding.
Source:

information supplied by the Office. These tables summarise the data provided by the Office in its own accounts.

2 145

5 156

1

194

216

9

0

3 887

160

366

216

32

Subtotal

7 721

4 661

Total

23 084

21 141

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/105

THE OFFICE’S REPLIES

The wording of Article 8 of the new Financial Regulation
7.
suggests that once the new Regulation had entered into force on
16 September 2003, appropriations under Title III may de facto be
considered differentiated. The Office considers that the adoption
by the budgetary authority of the 2004 budget, which included
differentiated appropriations taking account of previous commit-
ments still to be paid, makes up for the lack of an amending
budget.

8.
ment of

The Office will submit a new request for the reimburse-
the outstanding EUR 206 553. As regards the

remaining EUR 9 495, a decision will be taken before the end
of the year.

9.

This validation is being finalised.

10.
The Office is looking at improved integration of its com-
puter systems. Some elements have already been put in place,
such as: automatic transfer of clients’ debit and credit notes, auto-
matic transfer of clients’ and suppliers’ data and automatic trans-
fers of suppliers’ invoices.