2006 discharge: EC general budget, European Data Protection Supervisor

PURPOSE: presentation of the report by the Court of Auditors on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2006 (other institutions - European Data-Protection Supervisor).

CONTENT: in its 2006 annual report, the Court examines the legality and regularity of the administrative expenditure of the institutions. Although, on the whole, all the institutions put in place a satisfactory monitoring and control framework in 2006, the Court notes a certain number of weaknesses concerning respecting procurement procedures by the institutions (in particular, a lack of competitive tendering in the case of negotiated procedures).

For the rest, the Court notes that the level of error in the expenditure samples selected for scrutiny by the Court was not significant. However, it expects the weaknesses identified to be addressed in the future.

European Data-Protection Supervisor Audit: the audit of the areas presenting a specific risk showed that the shortcomings were affecting the monitoring and control systems relating to the payment of allowances to members of certain institutions. However, the European Data-Protection Supervisor audit did not yield any significant findings.