Report on the annual accounts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2009, together with the Centre’s replies
Date: 2010-09-16
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Court of Auditors, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, administration of the Institutions, competence of the institution, financial control, implementation of the budget, report








C_2010338EN.01011901.xml










14.12.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 338/119





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2009, together with the Centre’s replies
2010/C 338/21

CONTENTS








 



Paragraph




Page





INTRODUCTION …


1-2


120




STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE …


3-12


120




COMMENTS ON THE BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT …


13


121




OTHER MATTERS …


14-15


121




FOLLOW-UP FROM PREVIOUS YEAR’S FINDINGS …


16


121




Table …


122





The Centre’s replies …


123





INTRODUCTION







1.


The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (hereinafter ‘the Centre’), which is located in Luxembourg, was established by Council Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 (1). The Centre’s role is to provide any European Union Institutions and Bodies, which call upon its services with the translation services necessary for their activities (2).










2.


The Centre’s 2009 budget amounted to 62,6 million euro, compared with 59,9 million euro the previous year. The number of staff employed by the Centre at the end of the year was 202, as compared with 189 the previous year.



























































































































12.


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





COMMENTS ON THE BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT







13.


Article 8.2 of the Centre’s Financial Regulation requires that ‘commitments appropriations shall cover the total cost of the legal commitments entered into in the current financial year’ whereas the Centre entered budgetary commitments only for the part of the costs relating to the year when the legal obligation was contracted. This approach was irregular and was systematically applied.





OTHER MATTERS







14.


The Centre did not issue a comprehensive written procedure defining roles, timing and workflows for the establishment, validation and booking of recovery orders for translations delivered to customers. This situation did not comply with the internal control standards applicable to the Centre (12).










15.


The ABAC accounting system will replace the Centre’s current budgetary system (SI2), but the date for this replacement has not been decided yet. The Commission no longer fully supports and maintains SI2. As the Centre does not have the necessary expertise for this, there is a significant risk for the continuity of its financial operations until ABAC is operational.





FOLLOW-UP FROM PREVIOUS YEAR’S FINDINGS







16.


The Centre has decided to redistribute 11 million euro of its cumulative surplus to its clients thereby reducing the balance to 24 million euro at the year end. Some 18 million of this is earmarked to pay the employer contribution to the Commission retirement scheme pending a ruling of the European Court of Justice.





This Report was adopted by Chamber CHAMBER IV, headed by Mr Igors LUDBORŽS, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 14 and 16 September 2010.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President





Table


Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (Luxembourg)











Areas of Union competence


Competences of the Centre
Council Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1645/2003


Governance


Resources made available to the Centre in 2009
(Data for 2008)


Products and services provided in 2009

(Data for 2008)





The representatives of the Member States’ governments adopted by mutual agreement a declaration concerning the creation, under the aegis of the Commission’s translation departments in Luxembourg, of a Translation Centre for the bodies of the Union, which would provide the necessary translation services for the operation of the bodies and services whose seats were established by the Decision of 29 October 1993.



Objectives

To provide the necessary translation services for the operation of the following bodies:






—


the European Environment Agency,










—


the European Training Foundation,










—


the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction,










—


the European Medicines Agency,










—


the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers,










—


the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs),










—


the European Police Office (Europol) and the Europol Drugs Unit.




Bodies set up by the Council other than the above may use the Centre’s services. The institutions and bodies of the European Union which already have their own Translation Services may, if need be, call upon the Centre’s services on a voluntary basis.
The Centre plays a full part in the work of the Interinstitutional Translation Committee.



Tasks







—


To make arrangements for cooperation with the bodies and institutions.










—


To participate in the work of the Interinstitutional Translation Committee.







1 —   Management Board


Composition







—


one representative per Member State,










—


two representatives from the Commission,










—


one representative from each body or institution calling upon the Centre’s services.





Task

Adopts the Centre’s annual work programme and annual report.

2 —   Director

Appointed by the Management Board on a proposal from the Commission.

3 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

4 —   Internal audit

Internal Audit Service (IAS).

5 —   Discharge authority

Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council.



Budget

62,63 (59,94) million euro.

Staff at 31 December 2009

233 (233) provided in the establishment plan, of which 202 (189) were occupied.

Allocated to







—


operational tasks: 103 (97)










—


administrative tasks: 99 (92)







Number of pages translated

736 008 (747 416)

Number of pages by languages







—


official languages: 730 565 (742 256)










—


other languages: 5 443 (5 160)





Number of pages per client







—


Bodies: 708 589(731 944)











—


Institutions: 21 789(15 472)





Number of pages translated by freelances: 409 788(441 223)






Source: Information supplied by the Centre.






THE CENTRE’S REPLIES






13.


The Centre took note of the Court’s observation and has addressed this issue. Detailed instructions were adequately communicated to all financial actors.










14.


The Centre took note of the Court’s observation, and a procedure for revenue management has been included in the Annual work programme 2010 of the Administration department. Necessary resources have been allocated to complete this task before the end of year 2010.










15.


The Centre is making its best efforts to have the SI2 system supported until the implementation of ABAC, including, but not limited to, seeking an external expertise by way of subcontracting.







(1)  OJ L 314, 7.12.1994, 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 19 November 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 Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 652/2008 of 9 July 2008 (OJ L 181, 10.7.2008, p. 23) and are integrated as such in 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 15 June 2010 and received by the Court on 2 July 2010. 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 www.cdt.europa.eu

(12)  Internal Control Standards Nos 6 ‘Risk Management Process’ and 8 ‘Processes and Procedures’.