Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| 10.12.2014 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 442/332 |

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REPORT

on the annual accounts of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market for the financial year 2013, together with the Office’s replies

(2014/C 442/39)

INTRODUCTION

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|  | 1. | The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (hereinafter ‘the Office’, aka ‘OHIM’), which is located in Alicante, was established by Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94[(1)](#ntr1-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0001), which was repealed and replaced by Regulation (EC) No 207/2009[(2)](#ntr2-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0002). The Office’s task is to implement the Union legislation on trade marks and designs, which gives undertakings uniform protection throughout the entire area of the European Union[(3)](#ntr3-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0003). |

INFORMATION IN SUPPORT OF THE STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

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|  | 2. | The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, direct testing of transactions and an assessment of key controls of the Office’s supervisory and control systems. This is supplemented by evidence provided by the work of other auditors (where relevant) and an analysis of management representations. |

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| STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |  | 3. | Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:   |  |  | | --- | --- | | (a) | the annual accounts of the Office, which comprise the financial statements[(4)](#ntr4-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0004) and the reports on the implementation of the budget[(5)](#ntr5-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0005) for the financial year ended 31 December 2013, and |  |  |  | | --- | --- | | (b) | the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts. | |   The management’s responsibility   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |  | 4. | The management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Office and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions[(6)](#ntr6-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0006):   |  |  | | --- | --- | | (a) | The management’s responsibilities in respect of the Office's annual accounts include designing, implementing and maintaining an internal control system relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies on the basis of the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer[(7)](#ntr7-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0007); making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. The President approves the annual accounts of the Office after its accounting officer has prepared them on the basis of all available information and established a note to accompany the accounts in which he declares, inter alia, that he has reasonable assurance that they present a true and fair view of the financial position of the Office in all material respects. |  |  |  | | --- | --- | | (b) | The management’s responsibilities in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions and compliance with the principle of sound financial management consist of designing, implementing and maintaining an effective and efficient internal control system comprising adequate supervision and appropriate measures to prevent irregularities and fraud and, if necessary, legal proceedings to recover funds wrongly paid or used. | |   The auditor’s responsibility   |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | |  | 5. | The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the Budget Committee of the Office a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions[(8)](#ntr8-C_2014442EN.01033201-E0008). The Court conducts its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Office are free from material misstatement and the transactions underlying them are legal and regular. |  |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | |  | 6. | The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts. |  |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | |  | 7. | The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for its statement of assurance. |   Opinion on the reliability of the accounts   |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | |  | 8. | In the Court’s opinion, the Office’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2013 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer. |   Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts   |  |  |  | | --- | --- | --- | |  | 9. | In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013 are legal and regular in all material respects. | |

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| 10. | The comments which follow do not call the Court’s opinions into question. |

COMMENTS ON BUDGETARY MANAGEMENT

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|  | 11. | The amount of cancelled carry-overs from previous years increased from 4,2 million euro (13 %) in 2012 to 6,0 million (16 %) in 2013. In both years this was mainly due to lower than estimated costs to be reimbursed under cooperation agreements with Member States’ National Offices (1,9 million euro in 2012 and 3,8 million euro in 2013), which indicates the need to obtain more accurate information from National Offices at year-end on the actual cost incurred. |

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|  | 12. | The level of committed 2013 appropriations for the different titles varied between 98 % and 89 % of total appropriations, indicating that legal commitments were made in a timely manner. The level of committed appropriations carried over to 2014 was high for title II (administrative expenditure) at 23,9 million euro (28 %) and title III at 13,3 million euro (38 %). For title II this resulted from multiannual contracts mainly related to the construction of the new building and IT developments and services/supplies ordered, as planned, at the end of 2013 which were only due for payment in 2014. For title III, it was mainly related to cooperation agreements with National Offices for which cost claims were not due to be submitted by National Offices until 2014, and the usual order of translation services in the last months of 2013, which were only due for payment in 2014. |

OTHER COMMENTS

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|  | 13. | The Office has a Business Continuity and Crisis Management Plan in place which stipulates that some 25 roles have to be covered permanently by employees on stand-by duty. Although budget appropriations for stand-by duty allowances are approved annually by the Office’s Budget Committee, the amount paid in 2013 (4 02  458 euro) considerably exceeds such allowances paid by other agencies which need to ensure permanent service. |

FOLLOW-UP OF PREVIOUS YEARS’ COMMENTS

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|  | 14. | An overview of the corrective actions taken in response to the Court's comments from previous years is provided in Annex I. |

This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Milan Martin CVIKL, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 8 July 2014.

For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President

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