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2008 discharge: European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)

2009/2131(DEC)

The European Parliament adopted by 549 votes to 32, with 57 abstentions, a decision on discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the Community Fisheries Control Agency in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2008.

Furthermore, Parliament adopted a resolution with observations which are an integral part of the decision to grant discharge.

The main points are as follows:

  • performance: Parliament underlines the importance of drawing up a multiannual work programme so that the Agency can make effective organisational arrangements to implement its strategy and achieve its goals. It also calls on the Agency to consider making a Gantt diagram part of the programming for each of its operational activities, with a view to indicating in concise form the amount of time spent by each staff member on a project and encouraging an approach geared towards achieving results;
  • budgetary and financial management: Parliament draws attention to the need for the Agency to remedy the shortcomings in the programming of its activities so that in future the procedures for drafting the budget are sufficiently rigorous and obviate any need to increase and/or decrease the appropriations against its budget headings. It also welcomes the fact that the Agency has undertaken to improve its budgetary planning and monitoring and, consequently, to reduce the number of budgetary modifications required;
  • internal audit: Parliament acknowledges that the Internal Audit Service (IAS) has identified 15 recommendations for the Agency, nine of which have been rated as 'very important' and call for the development a set of indicators covering all activities of the Agency and its internal organisation;
  • human resources: Parliament notes that, in 2008, the rate of recruitment was so much faster than originally planned that the volume of appropriations required to pay salaries was underestimated by more than 35% (roughly EUR 1 300 000). It, therefore, calls on the Agency to improve the monitoring of the implementation of its budget.

Noting that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2008 are reliable, and the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament approves the closure of the Agency’s accounts. However, it makes a number of recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies (see 2010/2007(INI) adopted in parallel).