Report on the annual accounts of the European Fundamental Rights 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.01001001.xml










14.12.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 338/10





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the European Fundamental Rights Agency for the financial year 2009, together with the Agency’s replies
2010/C 338/03

CONTENTS








 



Paragraph




Page





INTRODUCTION …


1-2


11




STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE …


3-12


11




COMMENTS ON THE BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT …


13


12




OTHER MATTERS …


14-15


12




Table …


13





The Agency’s replies …


15





INTRODUCTION







1.


The European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’), located in Vienna, was established by Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007 (1). The objective of the Agency is to provide the relevant authorities of the Union and its Member States with assistance and expertise when implementing Union law relating to fundamental rights (2).










2.


The Agency’s 2009 budget amounted to 17 million euro compared with 15 million euro the previous year.The number of staff employed by the Agency at the end of the year was 64 as compared with 47 the previous year.



























































































































12.


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





COMMENTS ON BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT







13.


The Agency increased its operating budget by 38 %, transferring 1,9 million euro from Title I (staff) to Title III (operational activities) due to delays in recruitment and in order to finance operational activities not foreseen in the initial budget. The 2009 establishment plan provided for 61 posts. As at December 2009 only 48 of these posts had been filled. 50 % of appropriations for Title II (administration) as well as two thirds of appropriations for Title III were carried forward to 2010. This situation showed a lack of consistency between budgetary and staff forecasting.There is significant room for the Agency to improve its budgetary and recruitment planning.





OTHER MATTERS







14.


For the award of three framework contracts (12), the evaluation of financial offers were based on scenarios insufficiently representative of the requested services. The financial offers differed considerably in both unit prices and the tenderers’ estimates of the number of man-days necessary for the implementation of one and the same technical scenario. For the award of the framework contracts, some bidders submitted very low financial offers. However, the evaluation committee files did not include a sufficiently detailed analysis of the low-value bids, in particular the low estimates for the man-days.










15.


In July 2007, the Agency directly awarded (13) a framework contract for an amount of 2 million euro (14) for a four-year period. By June 2009 the maximum amount had been fully used. Although the contract notice did not foresee an increase in the maximum amount, the Agency continued to award specific contracts in 2009 amounting to a further 500 000 euro. This situation shows that there is room of improvement in procurement planning and monitoring.





This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Igors LUDBORŽS, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 5 October 2010.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President





Table


European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (Vienna)











Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty


Competences of the Agency
(Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007)


Governance


Resources made available to the Agency in 2009

(Data for 2008)



Products and services 2009
(Data for 2008)




The Commission may, within the limits and under conditions laid down by the Council acting by a simple majority in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties, collect any information and carry out any checks required for the performance of the tasks entrusted to it.

(Article 337 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)




Objectives

To provide the relevant institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union and its Member States when implementing Union law with assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights in order to support them when they take measures or formulate courses of action within their respective spheres of competence to fully respect fundamental rights.



Tasks







—


To collect, record, analyse and disseminate relevant, objective, reliable and comparable information and data.










—


To develop methods and standards to improve the comparability, objectivity and reliability of data at European level.










—


To carry out, cooperate with or encourage scientific research and surveys, preparatory studies and feasibility studies.










—


To formulate and publish conclusions and opinions on specific thematic topics for the Union institutions and the Member States when implementing Union law.










—


To publish an annual report on fundamental-rights issues covered by the areas of the Agency's activity.










—


To publish thematic reports based on its analysis, research and surveys.










—


To publish an annual report on its activities.










—


To develop a communication strategy and promote dialogue with civil society.







1 —   Management Board


Composition

One independent person appointed by each Member State, one independent person appointed by the Council of Europe and two representatives of the Commission.

Task

To adopt the budget, work programme and annual reports. To adopt the final budget and the establishment plan. To give an opinion on the final accounts.

2 —   Executive Board


Composition







—


Chairperson of the Management Board,










—


vice-Chairperson of the Management Board,










—


one representative of the Commission,










—


two other members of the Management Board,










—


the person appointed by the Council of Europe to the Management Board may participate in the meetings of the Executive Board.





3 —   Scientific Committee


Composition







—


Eleven independent persons, highly qualified in the field of fundamental rights,










—


appointed by the Management Board, shall appoint the members following a transparent call for applications and selection procedure.





4 —   Director

Appointed by the Management Board on a proposal from the Commission and after opinions of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (who will state their preferences).

5 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

6 —   Internal control

Internal audit service of the European Commission.

7 —   Discharge authority

Parliament, on a recommendation from the Council.



Budget

17,0 million euro (15,0 million euro)
of which the Union subsidy is 100 % (100 %)

Staff at 31 December 2009

61 (49) foreseen in the establishment plan,
of which occupied: 48 (35)
+ 16 (12) other staff (contract agents, detached national experts)

Total staff: 77 (61)


Allocated to

operational: 46 (37)
administrative: 27 (19)
mixed: 4 (5)



RAXEN

Number of contributions by the 27 national focal points 189 (219)
Number of meetings 1 (1)

FRALEX

Number of contributions by legal experts 27 (201)
Number of meetings 1 (2)

Research Reports:

Number of reports: 19 (6)
Number of meetings: 20 (21)
Annual Reports: 2 (2)

Non-Research Materials

Various publications: 1 (13)

Key Conferences and Events

Fundamental Rights Conference: 1 (1)
Diversity Day Event: 3 (1)

Cooperation with Member States and other Institutions:

Member States: 10 (9)
Council of the EU: 2 (0)
European Commission: 17 (17)
European Parliament: 2 (6)
Committee of the Regions: 2 (2)
European Economic and Social Committee: 1 (0)
Fundamental Rights Platform: 2 (1)
Council of Europe: 16 (25)
OSCE: 6 (7)
United Nations: 3 (6)
External Stakeholders 22
Specialised Bodies: 9
Other Meetings and Round Tables: 11 (18)





Source: Information supplied by the Agency.






THE AGENCY’S REPLIES






13.


The Agency will take measures to reduce the rate of the carry forward of its appropriations as much as is possible. It has to be noted that the situation described by the Court was due to external factors such as delays in the recruitments due to the nomination of a new director or in the finalisation of an important framework contract launched by the Commission. However, by the end of 2009 five job-offers, which were legally binding, were accepted by the candidates who took up duty in March 2010.










14.


The Evaluation Committee considered that the scenarios used were representative and thoroughly assessed the low value bids. However, the Agency will take measures to ensure as far as is possible that the scenarios used to evaluate the tender are realistic. In particular, attention will be given to the clarity and the documentation of the evaluation methods applied by the Evaluation Committee. The Agency notes that so far the contracts mentioned by the Court have been implemented without problem.










15.


The awarding of these specific contracts was due to the need to prepare four events urgently, and, in particular, one organised in cooperation with the Swedish Presidency, involving a high reputational risk. The Agency has already started to take measures to avoid similar situations by improving the programming and the monitoring of its contracts.







(1)  OJ L 53, 22.2.2007, p. 1.

(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 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 into the Agency's Financial Regulation.

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

(11)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 27 May 2010 and received by the Court on 9 June 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.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/home/home_en.htm

(12)  Contract F/SU/09/01 for an amount of 800 000 euro, contract F/SE/09/02 for an amount of 900 000 euro, contract FRA-CAR-2009-T01-A (lot 1) for an amount of 875 000 euro.

(13)  Use of negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice as no suitable tenders were submitted in response to an open procedure (Article 126.1.a of the General Implementing Rules).

(14)  Contract FR2-2007/3401/3402/3403/NP01.