Report on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia for the 2003 financial year together with the Monitoring Centre's replies
Date: 2004-09-30
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Court of Auditors, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, administration of the Institutions, financial control, interinstitutional relations (EU), operating result, report

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/91

on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and
Xenophobia for the 2003 financial year together with the Monitoring Centre’s replies

REPORT

(2004/C 324/13)

CONTENTS

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

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

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

1

2-5

6-14

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

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

92

92

92

94

98

Paragraph

Page

C 324/92

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

INTRODUCTION

OBSERVATIONS

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xeno-
1.
phobia (‘the Centre’) was established by Council Regulation (EC)
No 1035/97 of 2 June 1997 (1). The Centre’s primary tasks are to
provide the Union and the Member States with reliable informa-
tion on racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism in the Union and
to cooperate with the Council of Europe in these areas. Table 1 is
based on information forwarded by the Centre and gives a brief
overview of its responsibilities and activities.

THE COURT’S OPINION

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

The Court has examined the annual accounts of the Cen-
3.
tre for the financial year ended 31 December 2003. In accordance
with Article 12(8) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1035/97, the
budget was implemented on the Director’s responsibility. This
responsibility includes the drawing-up and presentation of the
accounts (3), in accordance with the internal financial provisions
adopted under Article 12(12) of Council Regulation (EC)
No 1035/97. The Court of Auditors is required under Article 248
of the Treaty establishing the European Community to examine
these accounts.

6.
The implementation of the appropriations of the financial
year 2003 and the appropriations carried over from the previous
financial year is shown in Table 2 (4). The Centre’s balance sheet
and revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2003
are summarised in Tables 3 and 4.

7.
The level of carry-overs of appropriations under Title III,
Operating activities, remained high, but was lower than the pre-
vious year (36 % in 2003 and 40 % in 2002). The Court once
again (5) draws the Centre’s attention to the necessity of observ-
ing the principle of annuality more fully when planning and
monitoring its activities.

8.
Of the appropriations carried over from the financial year
2002 to the financial year 2003 (1,5 million euro), 20 % were
cancelled at the year-end. This is a large percentage, showing that
the justification for the automatic carry-overs of 2002 appropria-
tions was poor, especially in the case of provisional commit-
ments. Carry-overs of appropriations must be strictly limited to
obligations duly contracted at the close of the financial year.

9.
On 3 March 2003 the Centre signed a convention with the
Commission concerning the establishment of an information net-
work for the candidate countries in central and eastern Europe.
The project receives funding via Phare subsidies totalling 845 000
euro. In accordance with Article 4 of the convention the Centre
received an advance of 676 000 euro (80 %) in 2003. Contrary
to the principles of budget unity (6), the Centre did not use an
amending budget to include the amount of the 2003 Phare sub-
sidy in its budget.

The Court performed its audit in accordance with its audit-
4.
ing policies and standards. These 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 it con-
sidered necessary in that context.

As the Court has already pointed out,

10.
in its 2002
Report (7), the Centre should establish an efficient system for
managing and monitoring revenue to be collected. A system of
that type would avoid the delays that were observed in the issue
of recovery orders and the recovery of VAT.

The Court thus obtained reasonable assurance that the
5.
annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003
are reliable. Subject to the matter described in paragraph 13, the
Court obtained reasonable assurance that the underlying transac-
tions, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.

As of 31 December 2003 the recovery orders relating to
11.
the Austrian authorities’ reimbursement of rent for the period
May to August 2003 (37 017 euro) had not been drawn up.

(1) OJ L 151, 10.6.1997, p. 6.
(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) As required by Article 12(10) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1035/97
the accounts for all the Centre’s revenue and expenditure for the finan-
cial year 2003 were drawn up on 9 September 2004 and forwarded
to the Court of Auditors, which received them on 24 September 2004.
A summarised version of those accounts is presented in the tables
annexed to this report.

(4) All the tables in the Report were drawn up on the basis of the most
exact values possible for the data used. Figures have been rounded, for
presentational purposes, which may produce minor differences in
totals. A dash indicates a non-existent or zero value and 0,0 indicates
a value below the rounding threshold.

(5) See paragraph 7 of the 2002 report (OJ C 319, 30.12.2003, p. 70).
(6) See Articles 4 to 6 on the principle of unity and budget accuracy and

Article 19(3) of the Centre’s financial regulation.

(7) See paragraph 9 of the Report concerning the 2002 financial year

(OJ C 319, 30.12.2003, p. 70).

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/93

An amount of 333 474 euro of VAT paid in 2000 has
12.
still not been recovered. If exchange-rate differences are taken
into account, the total is understated by 19 242 euro. The Centre
must step up its efforts to obtain the VAT reimbursement. Fur-
thermore, the VAT accounts are not regularly analysed and justi-
fied. As an example, one VAT reimbursement of around
78 000 euro had not been included as budget revenue and
remained as an entry in a suspense account.

In 2003 the Centre placed three contracts (for a total of
13.
181 078 euro) with the same supplier, through the negotiated

procedure, even though each of the contracts exceeded the
13 800 euro ceiling that applies to that procedure and the con-
ditions that allow the limit to be exceeded were inapplicable.

14.
The Centre invited applications from internal candidates
for two recruitments. In one case there was only one applicant,
and in the other only two. In view of the Centre’s size, this type
of procedure limits competition between candidates.

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 324/94

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

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EN

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C 324/96

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia — Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2003 and 2002

Table 3

(1 000 euro)

Total revenue (a)

Revenue
Community subsidies
Other revenue
Financial revenue
PHARE 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

PHARE expenditure
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, cancelled
Appropriations for re-use from the previous financial year, not used
Exchange-rate differences
Amounts refunded to the Commission

2003

7 318
374
21
676

8 389

2 618
64

412
51

1 678
1 162

377
694

7 055

1 334

– 1 579
301
38
5

2002

4 320

43

4 363

2 416
187

377
60

1 686
1 234

5 960

– 1 597

– 8
52
151
2
– 179

NB: Totals may include differences due to rounding.
Source: Data supplied by the Centre. These tables summarise the data supplied by the Centre in its own accounts.

Balance for the financial year

98

– 1 579

30.12.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/97

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia — 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

Computer equipment

Equipment and furniture

Depreciation

Current assets

Community subsidies

Advances

Sundry accounts receivable

Recoverable VAT

PHARE subsidy

Cash accounts

Bank accounts

72

148

250

– 362

108

23

0

77

456

169

725

Subtotal

Subtotal

2 073

Subtotal

2 073

Total

2 906

Own capital

Own capital

Balance for the financial year

70

140

235

– 262

Current liabilities

108

98

207

183

– 1 579

– 1 396

Subtotal

183

Automatic carry-overs

1 277

1 482

Sundry accounts payable

VAT to be paid

PHARE liabilities

275

454

694

225

507

Subtotal

2 700

2 214

Suspense accounts and adjustment
accounts

Sums to be reused

Subtotal

0

Total

2 906

99

99

917

13

1

66

541

0

621

113

113

917

NB: Totals may include differences due to rounding.
Source: Data supplied by the Centre. The tables summarise the data supplied by the Centre in its own accounts.

C 324/98

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2004

THE MONITORING CENTRE’S REPLIES

In 2003 the execution of the budget and the implementa-
7.
tion of the Work Programme were again affected adversely by the
low level of payment appropriations available to the EUMC. In
July 2003 the EUMC requested additional payment appropria-
tions that were ultimately received only in December 2003. The
EUMC would also like to emphasise the fact that in some Mem-
ber States the official data that is used by the RAXEN network is
not published until September. Despite all of the above, the level
of carry-overs has decreased in comparison to 2002, as indicated
by the Court. The EUMC will continue its efforts to further
improve the situation.

8.
The EUMC agrees with the observation made by the Court
and has taken appropriate measures in 2003 to prevent this
occurring in the future.

9.
The EUMC decided not to publish its PHARE budget in an
amending budget because the project dealt with non-Member
States, therefore it was not within the scope of the EUMC’s man-
date as defined in its basic regulation. However, given the Court’s
observation, the EUMC has included the PHARE project budget in
its amending budget 2004.

10 and 11.
The EUMC agrees with the observation made by
the Court and has taken measures to improve the controls over
the creation of recovery orders.

The EUMC re-calculated and re-submitted its claim for
12.
the reimbursement of the amount of EUR 333 474 in VAT out-
standing, which the Austrian authorities settled in June 2004.
Regarding the EUR 78 000, the EUMC has amended its accounts
accordingly. The VAT is now analyzed on a regular basis.

13.
The EUMC agrees with the Court’s observations and has,
as a result, re-enforced internal controls with the introduction of
a procurement helpdesk and additional training. The EUMC
would like to point out that an open call for tender had been
planned for 2003 but could not be implemented due to a lack of
human resources (see reply to point 14). The EUMC made an
open call for tender in 2004 for a framework contract for the
organisation of meetings. The company that won this tender is
the same company that was used throughout 2003. The fact that
this company was selected following the correct procurement
procedure in the years prior to 2003, in the opinion of the EUMC,
suggests
financial
that
consequences.

there were no material

adverse

14.
Internal competitions are not an infringement of the staff
regulations. Given the small size of the EUMC and the absence of
permanent posts, a decision was made to fill the vacant tempo-
rary posts via internal competition so as to provide staff with a
certain career perspective and to fill two key positions as rapidly
as possible. The EUMC has, however, decided that in the future
internal competitions will only be made if a certain level of com-
petition is guaranteed.