Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 19.12.2006 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 312/48 |

---

REPORT

on the annual accounts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2005 together with the Centre's replies

(2006/C 312/09)

CONTENTS

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 1-2 | INTRODUCTION |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 3-6 | STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 7-10 | OBSERVATIONS |

Tables 1 to 4

The Centre's replies

INTRODUCTION

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 1. | The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (hereinafter the Centre) was established by Council Regulation (EC) No 2965/94[(1)](#ntr1-C_2006312EN.01004801-E0001). The Centre's role is to provide the EU bodies, and any other EU institutions and bodies which call upon its services, with the translation services necessary for their activities. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 2. | Table 1 summarises the Centre's competences and activities. Key information from the financial statements drawn up by the Centre for the financial year 2005 is presented in Tables 2, 3 and 4. |

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 3. | This Statement is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 185(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002[(2)](#ntr2-C_2006312EN.01004801-E0002); it was drawn up following an examination of the Centre's accounts, as required by Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European Community. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 4. | The Centre's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2005[(3)](#ntr3-C_2006312EN.01004801-E0003) were drawn up by its Director, pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 2965/94, and sent to the Court, which is required to give its opinion on their reliability and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 5. | The Court conducted an audit in accordance with its policies and standards, which are based on international auditing standards that have been adapted to the Community context. The audit was planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance that the accounts are reliable and the underlying transactions are legal and regular. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 6. | The Court has thus obtained a reasonable basis for the Statement set out below. |

Reliability of the accountsThe Centre's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2005 are, in all material respects, reliable.Legality and regularity of the underlying transactionsThe transactions underlying the Centre's annual accounts, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.The observations which follow do not call the Court's Statement into question

OBSERVATIONS

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 7. | For the financial year 2005, the overall rate of implementation for commitment appropriations was over 90 % and the same was true for payment appropriations. Nevertheless, under-utilisation was noted with regard to expenditure on administration (Title II), less than 75 % of the appropriations for which were committed, and 24 % of commitments were carried over. Furthermore, for the same expenditure, more than 50 % of the total commitments carried over from the previous year were cancelled. Such a situation indicates a qualitative weakness in the programming of administrative expenditure. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 8. | The appropriations for freelance translators' fees of seven million euro, more than a quarter of the budget, are committed in the form of several global commitments. These commitments, as such, are subject to ex ante verification and subsequently give rise to specific commitments to many individual service-providers. However, these specific commitments, for amounts which may not be negligible, are not subject to ex ante verification. In view of the associated risks, these specific commitments should also be subject to ex ante verification. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 9. | The Centre is responsible for administering and developing a database (IATE) in conjunction with the EU Institutions, which meet part of the costs. The agreement on the division of costs associated with IATE says nothing about intellectual property rights. This omission must be rectified so that account can be taken of its value in the assets of the Institutions concerned. |

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| 10. | In its Annual Report on the Centre for the financial year 2004, the Court made an observation concerning the long-standing conflict between the Commission and the Centre about the Centre's payment of the employer's portion of pension contributions for its staff. The Court reiterates its call for this conflict to be settled as soon as possible. |

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 28 September 2006.

For the Court of Auditors

Hubert WEBER

President

---

[Top](#document1)