Report on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2008, together with the Centre’s replies
Date: 2009-10-08
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Court of Auditors, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, administration of the Institutions, financial control, implementation of the budget, powers of the institutions (EU), report








C_2009304EN.01014801.xml










15.12.2009   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 304/148






REPORT

on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2008, together with the Centre’s replies
2009/C 304/27

CONTENTS








 



Paragraph




Page





INTRODUCTION …


1-2


149




STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE …


3-12


149




OTHER MATTERS …


13


150




Table …


151





The Centre’s replies …


153





INTRODUCTION







1.


The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (hereinafter ‘the Centre’), located in Lisbon, was established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 302/93 of 8 February 1993 (1). Its main task is to collect data on drugs and drug addiction in order to prepare and publish information that is objective, reliable and comparable at European level. The information is intended to provide a basis for analysing the demand for drugs and ways of reducing it, as well as, in general, phenomena associated with the drug market (2).










2.


The Centre’s 2008 budget amounted to 15,1 million euro, as compared with 14,4 million euro the previous year. The number of the staff employed by the Centre at the end of the year was 104 compared with 98 the previous year.






STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE









3.



Pursuant to the provisions of Article 248 of the Treaty the Court has audited the annual accounts (3) of the Centre, which comprise the ‘financial statements’ (4) and the ‘reports on implementation of the budget’ (5) for the financial year ended 31 December 2008 and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.











4.



This Statement of Assurance is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 185(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (6).






The Director’s responsibility









5.



As authorising officer, the Director implements the revenue and expenditure of the budget in accordance with the financial rules of the Centre under his own responsibility and within the limits of authorised appropriations (7). The Director is responsible for putting in place (8) the organisational structure and the internal management and control systems and procedures relevant for drawing up final accounts (9) that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and for ensuring that the transactions underlying those accounts are legal and regular.






The Court’s responsibility









6.



The Court’s responsibility is to provide, on the basis of its audit, a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the Centre’s annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them.











7.



The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC and ISSAI (10) International Auditing Standards and Codes of Ethics. Those standards require that the Court complies with ethical requirements and plans and performs the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the accounts are free from material misstatement and whether the underlying transactions are legal and regular.











8.



The Court’s audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and about the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them. The procedures selected depend on its audit judgement including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts or of illegal or irregular transactions, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and presentation of accounts is considered in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The Court’s audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the accounts.











9.



The Court believes that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for the opinions set out below.







Opinion on the reliability of the accounts










10.



In the Court’s opinion, the Centre’s annual accounts (11) present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2008 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.







Opinion on the legality and the regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts










11.



In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the Centre’s annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2008 are, in all material respects, legal and regular.










12.


The comments which follow do not call the Court’s opinions into question.





OTHER MATTERS







13.


The Centre’s 2008 work programme lists, for each strategic priority, several operational objectives, actions and outputs. Objectives are often neither clearly linked to outputs nor measurable and outcome indicators are missing, which makes it difficult to monitor progress at the level of activity. The work programme does not detail the estimated human and financial resources necessary to implement the planned actions. In order to ensure full activity-based management, allowing continuous improvement of resource allocation and performance analysis, the Centre should establish measurable objectives with relevant indicators, allocate its resources based on estimated project needs and promote the achieving of results.





This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 8 October 2009.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA


President





Table


European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon)











Areas of Community competence deriving from the Treaty


The Centre’s powers as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006


Governance


Resources available to the Centre in 2008

(Data for 2007)



Products and services supplied in 2008

(Data for 2007)





The Community complements the Member States’ actions in reducing drugs-related health damage, including information and prevention.

(Article 152 of the Treaty)




Objectives

To provide the European Union and its Member States with factual, objective, reliable and comparable information at Community level concerning drugs, drug addiction and their consequences.
The Monitoring Centre should focus on the following priority areas:






1.


monitoring the state of the drugs problem, and emerging trends, in particular those involving multi-drug use;










2.


monitoring the solutions and providing information on best practices;










3.


assessing the risks of new psychoactive substances and maintaining a rapid information system;










4.


developing tools and instruments to help Member States to monitor and evaluate their national policies and the Commission to monitor and evaluate EU policies.







Tasks







—


To collect and analyse data.










—


To improve data-comparison methods.










—


To disseminate data.










—


To cooperate with European and international bodies and organisations and with third countries.










—


To identify new developments and changing trends.







1 —   The Management Board

Comprises one representative from each Member State, two representatives of the Commission and two independent experts designated by the European Parliament.
It adopts the work programme, the general activities report and the budget.

2 —   Director

Appointed by the Management Board at the Commission’s proposal.

3 —   Scientific Committee

Delivers opinions. It consists of at most 15 well-known scientists appointed in view of their excellence by the Management Board following a call for expressions of interest. The Management Board may also appoint a panel of experts to the extended Scientific Committee for risk assessment of new psychoactive substances.

4 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

5 —   Discharge authority

Parliament acting on a recommendation from the Council.



Budget

15,1 million euro (14,4 million euro). Community subsidy 93 % (93 %).

Staff at 31 December 2008

Number of posts in establishment plan: 82 (82)

Posts occupied: 78 (73)

+ 26 (25) other staff (auxiliary contracts, contract staff and temporary replacements)
Total staff: 104 (98)

Assigned to the following duties:






 


operational: 62 (60)











 


administrative and IT support: 32 (29)











 


mixed: 10 (9)








Network

The Centre runs a computerised network for the collection and exchange of information called the ‘European Information Network on Drugs and Drug Addiction’ (Reitox); this network connects national drug information networks, specialist centres in the Member States and the information systems of international organisations working with the Centre.

Publications







—


Annual report on the state of the drug problem in Europe; 23 (23) language versions, publication and interactive website,










—


Selected issues 3 (3) issues, publication, multilingual summaries EN),










—


Statistical bulletin and interactive website containing over 350 (350) tables, 100 (100) graphs,










—


General report of activities — annual, EN,










—


Drugnet Europe newsletter — 4 issues, EN (4),










—


Drugs in Focus (policy briefings) — 1 (3) issue, 25 language versions,










—


EMCDDA Scientific monograph — 1 (0), two volumes, EN,










—


EMCDDA Insights — 3 (0), EN,










—


EMCDDA technical datasheets — 3 (0),










—


Drug profiles — 5 new and 6 updated (6), DE, EN, FR,










—


Technical and scientific studies, including articles and scientific summaries 53 (57),










—


Data collection, validation, storage and retrieval system (Fonte).





Other websites

Set-up/updating/content development of public EMCDDA website including:






—


country overviews,










—


drug treatment overviews,










—


european legal database on drugs,










—


evaluation instruments bank,










—


best practice portal (exchange on drug demand reduction action).





Promotional brochures: 6 (3) products.

Media products: 177 (174) miscellaneous products.

Participation in international conferences/meetings: 203 (230).

Organisation of technical and scientific meetings: 35 (41).





Source: Information supplied by the Centre.






THE CENTRE’S REPLIES






13.


In line with the Court’s recommendations, the EMCDDA’s 2009 work programme ensures a better link between priorities, objectives and activities to be implemented. It also allocates financial and human resources to the different priorities and activities on the basis of the estimated costs for implementation. Mid-term progress reporting was carried out to monitor the state of implementation. Moreover, for the 2010–2012 planning cycle the activity-based management (ABM) approach was improved by promoting result-oriented processes, establishing more measurable objectives and developing appropriate performance indicators.







(1)  OJ L 36, 12.2.1993, p. 1. This Regulation and its amendments were repealed by Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 1).

(2)  The Table summarises the Centre’s competences and activities. It is presented for information purposes.

(3)  These accounts are accompanied by a report on the budgetary and financial management during the year which gives inter alia an account of the rate of implementation of the appropriations with summary information on the transfers of appropriations among the various budget items.

(4)  The financial statements include the balance sheet and the economic outturn account, the cash-flow table, the statement of changes in capital and the annex to the financial statements which includes the description of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.

(5)  The budget implementation reports comprise the budget outturn account and its annex.

(6)  OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

(7)  Article 33 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 23 December 2002 (OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72).

(8)  Article 38 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002.

(9)  The rules concerning the presentation of the accounts and accounting by the Agencies are laid down in chapter 1 of Title VII of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 652/2008 of 9 July 2008 (OJ L 181, 10.7.2008, p. 23) and are integrated as such into the Financial Regulation of the Centre.

(10)  International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).

(11)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 17 June 2009 and received by the Court on 6 July 2009. The Final Annual Accounts, consolidated with those of the Commission are published in the Official Journal of the European Union by 15 November of the following year. These can be found on the following website http://eca.europa.eu or http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/html.cfm/index81990EN.html