Report on the annual accounts of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency for the financial year 2009, together with the Agency’s replies
Date: 2010-09-16
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: EU office or agency, European Court of Auditors, administration of the Institutions, competence of the institution, financial control, implementation of the budget, report








C_2010338EN.01006501.xml










14.12.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 338/65





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency for the financial year 2009, together with the Agency’s replies
2010/C 338/12

CONTENTS








 



Paragraph




Page





INTRODUCTION …


1-2


66




STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE …


3-12


66




OTHER MATTERS …


13


67




Table …


68





The Agency’s replies …


70





INTRODUCTION







1.


The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’), located in Brussels, was set up by Commission Decision 2005/56/EC of 14 January 2005 (1). The Agency manages programmes decided by the Commission in the educational, audiovisual and cultural fields, including undertaking the detailed implementation of technical projects (2).










2.


After the adoption of two amending budgets, the Agency’s 2009 administrative budget was 47,7 million euro, compared with 38,2 million euro the previous year. The number of staff employed by the Agency at the end of the year was 414, as compared with 362 the previous year.



























































































































12.


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





OTHER MATTERS







13.


With regard to staff selection procedures, neither the thresholds that candidates had to meet in order to be invited to interview nor those necessary to be put on the reserve list were fixed in advance; they were set by the selection boards after the evaluation and ranking of the candidates. These practices put at risk the transparency of the recruitment procedures.





This Report was adopted by 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


Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (Brussels)











Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union


Competences of the Agency as defined in Commission Decision 2005/56/EC of 14 January 2005


Governance


Resources made available to the Agency in 2009

(Data for 2008)



Activities and outputs in 2009




The European Union shall contribute to the development of quality education.

(Article 165(1) of the Treaty)

The European Union shall implement a vocational training policy.

(Article 166(1) of the Treaty)

The European Union shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States.

(Article 167(1) of the Treaty)

The European Union and the Member States shall ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Union’s industry exist.

(Article 173(1) of the Treaty)




Objectives

In the framework of the education, culture and industry policies, numerous measures have been taken to promote education, vocational training, audiovisual, culture, youth and active citizenship in the European Union. The main objectives of these measures are to reinforce social cohesion and to contribute to competitiveness, to economic growth and to an ever closer union amongst the people of Europe.
These measures include a variety of programmes.
The Agency is responsible for managing certain strands of these programmes (e.g. ‘Lifelong learning’, ‘Culture’, ‘Youth in Action’, ‘Europe for Citizens’, ‘MEDIA’, ‘Erasmus Mundus’ (including the new ‘Action 2’) and ‘Tempus’). In this respect, it implements theaid of the Union, except for programme evaluation, strategic studies and any other task which requires discretionary powers in translating political choices.



Tasks







—


To manage, throughout their duration, the specific projects entrusted to it in the context of the implementation of programmes of the Union.










—


To adopt the instruments of budget implementation for revenue and expenditure and to carry out, where the Commission has empowered it to do so, the operations necessary for the management of the programmes of the Union and, in particular, those linked to the award of grants and contracts.










—


To gather, analyse and pass on to the Commission all the information needed to guide the implementation of the programmes of the Union.










—


To implement, at the level of the Union, the network of information on education in Europe (Eurydice) for the collection, analysis and dissemination of information and the production of studies and publications.







1 —   Steering Committee

Comprises five members appointed by the European Commission.
It adopts the Agency’s annual work programme after approval by the European Commission. In addition, it adopts the administrative budget of the Agency and its annual activity report.

2 —   Director

Appointed by the European Commission.

3 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

4 —   Discharge authority

Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council.



Budget

The 2009 administrative budget of the Agency has reached 48 million euro (38 million euro in 2008) (100 % financed by the general budget of the European Union).
The Agency has managed 629 million euro related to the programmes and projects delegated by the Commission to the Executive Agency (492 million euro in 2008)


Staff at 31 December 2009








(1)



Temporary staff:






 


99 posts for temporary staff in the establishment plan (92 in 2008)











 


Post occupied: 91 (85 in 2008).















(2)



Contract staff:
327 contract staff (303 in 2008)

Posts occupied:
323 (277 in 2008)












(3)



Total staff:
414 posts occupied (362 in 2008)



Allocated to


Operational: 340
Administrative: 74












—


The following activities and results were performed in 2009:






—


Regarding the Agency administrative budget, 46 million euro were committed (97 %) and 41 million euro were paid (85 %) to cover staff expenses, infrastructure cost and administrative expenses linked to operational activities.










—


Regarding the operational budget, 625 million euro were committed (99,3 %) to cover the award of grants and contracts and 528 million euro were paid (99,9 %).










—


A range of simplification measures were implemented to improve management processes and procedures for beneficiaries and to harmonise and accelerate internal working procedures. They include in particular contracting by decision, the introduction of lump sum and flat rate payments, the electronic submission of proposals,framework partnership agreements, rationalisation of grants and consolidation of experts’ comments.














—


The following outputs were produced in 2009:






—


31 calls for proposals and 3 programme guides were published for all programmes 2007-2013. The relevant selection processes were organised on schedule,










—


8 InfoDays and a range of projects’ kick off meetings took place in 2009,










—


about 4 100 projects were selected for grant award,










—


4 700 contracts were signed,










—


around 7 960 payments were carried out,










—


5 462 projects were closed in 2009,










—


6 calls for tenders/procurement procedures were launched for the supply of studies and services,










—


154 audits were closed in 2009, whereas 98 new audits were launched and all on-the-spot missions carried out.













Source: Information supplied by the Agency.






THE AGENCY’S REPLIES






13.


The Agency has taken note of the Court’s finding and amended its procedure in order to mention in the vacancy notice not only the number of candidates to be put on the reserve list but also the number of highest scoring candidates to be interviewed.







(1)  OJ L 24, 27.1.2005, p. 35.

(2)  The Table summarises the Agency’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 11, 16.1.2003, p. 1.

(7)  Article 25 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 (OJ L 297, 22.9.2004, p. 6).

(8)  Article 29 of Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004.

(9)  The rules concerning the presentation of the accounts and accounting by the Agencies are laid down in Chapter 1 of Title VI of Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 651/2008 of 9 July 2008 (OJ L 181, 10.7.2008, p. 15).

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

(11)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 31 May 2010 and received by the Court on 9 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.europa.eu/agencies/executive_agencies/eacea/index_en.htm