Report on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the financial year 2009, together with the Office’s replies
Date: 2010-10-12
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Community Plant Variety Office, European Court of Auditors, administration of the Institutions, competence of the institution, financial control, implementation of the budget, report








C_2010338EN.01016801.xml










14.12.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 338/168





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the financial year 2009, together with the Office’s replies
2010/C 338/29

CONTENTS








 



Paragraph




Page





INTRODUCTION …


1-2


169




STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE …


3-15


169




OTHER MATTERS …


16


170




Table …


171





The Office’s replies …


172





INTRODUCTION







1.


The Community Plant Variety Office (hereinafter ‘the Office’), located in Angers, was created by Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 (1). Its main task is to register and examine applications for the grant of Union industrial property rights for plant varieties and to ensure that the necessary technical examinations are carried out by the competent offices in the Member States (2).










2.


After the adoption of a supplementary amending budget, the Office’s 2009 budget was 13,2 million euro, compared with 12,5 million euro the previous year. The number of staff employed by the Office at the end of the year was 46, as compared with 44 the previous year.
































































































































































15.


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





OTHER MATTERS







16.


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. Similarly, the questions used during the written tests and interviews were decided after the examination of the applications. In addition, candidates were evaluated on the basis of criteria not announced in the vacancy notices. 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 12 October 2010.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President





Table


Community Plant Variety Office (Angers)











Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty


Competences of the Office
(Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94)


Governance


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


Products and services supplied in 2009
(Data for 2008)





Free movement of goods

Such prohibitions or restrictions (the protection of industrial and commercial property) shall not, however, constitute a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade between Member States.

(Extract of Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)




Objectives







—


To apply the system of Union plant variety rights as the sole and exclusive form of Union industrial property rights for plant varieties.







Tasks







—


To decide whether to refuse or grant applications for Union plant variety rights.










—


To decide on objections.










—


To decide on appeals.










—


To decide on the revocation or cancellation of a Union plant variety right.







1 —   The President

Directs the Office. He is appointed by the Council from a list of candidates proposed by the Commission after obtaining the opinion of the Administrative Council.

2 —   The Administrative Council

Oversees the Office's work programme and draws up rules governing the Office's working methods. It is composed of one representative of each Member State and one representative of the Commission, plus their alternates.
3 —   Decisions regarding the grant of Community plant variety rights are adopted by Committees composed of three members of staff of the Office and by the Board of Appeal in appeal proceedings.

4 —   Control of the legality of the Office's acts

Review by the Commission of the legality of the acts of the Office's President in respect of which Union law does not provide for any control on legality by another body and of the acts of the Administrative Council relating to the Office's budget.

5 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

6 —   Discharge authority

Administrative Council.



Budget

13,2 (12,5) million euro

Staff at 31 December 2009

Number of posts in establishment plan: 46 (43)

Posts occupied: 46 (43)

Total staff: 46 (44)


Allocated to

Operational: 17,5 (17)

Administrative: 22,5 (21)

Mixed: 6 (6)



Applications received: 2 755(3 012)

Rights granted: 2 596(2 162)

Union rights in force at 31 December 2009: 16 783(15 599)






Source: Information supplied by the Office.






THE OFFICE’S REPLIES






12.


The Office takes note of the remarks.










13.


For contract 2009-056 time constraints did not allow to consult further candidates. The contract AO 2009-05 was not extended beyond the first year and an open call for tender was published. The purchases of legal services were based on Article 126(1)(c) (extreme urgency) of the Implementing Regulation of the Financial Regulation, as regards contracts CPV.EPM.7303132, CPV.EPM.7401037 and CPV.EPM.7401729, as concerns contract CPV.EPM.7401002 on Article 126(1)(e) (additional services). The requirement for appropriate advertisement laid down in Article 126(1)(i) was not applicable.
The Office will consider whether it is opportune to advertise for the expression of interest for the provision for legal services in the future.










14.


To avoid the repetition of the situations described by the Court the Office will put in place an annual procurement programme to make sure that procurement procedures are launched in due time and implemented under correct conditions.










16.


The risk mentioned by the Court did not materialise as confirmed by the fact that the CPVO has never received complaints from candidates concerning alleged discrimination or otherwise. The CPVO has, however, improved the transparency of the selection procedures as the criteria to be used in the evaluation of candidates are clearly indicated in its vacancy notices ‘new style’.







(1)  OJ L 227, 1.9.1994, p. 27.

(2)  The Table summarises the Office'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)  Article 33 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 (OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72).

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

(8)  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 Office.

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

(10)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 24 June 2010 and received by the Court on 24 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 http://www.cpvo.europa.eu/main/en/home/about-the-cpvo/financing

(11)  Procedure CW MID V8-0208 (52 000 euro).

(12)  Procedure ADMIN/D1/PR/2003/131/9 (43 000 euro) and contract for consultancy services for the ‘multi-beneficiary programme’ (24 000 euro).

(13)  Contract 2009-056 (34 932 euro), and Contract AO 2009-05 (31 739 euro/year or 126 956 over 4 years).

(14)  CPV.EPM.7401002, CPV.EPM.7303132, CPV.EPM.7401037 and CPV.EPM.7401729 (54 569 euro in total).