2009 discharge: European Aviation Safety Agency EASA

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Georgios STAVRAKAKIS (S&D, EL) on discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency for implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2009.

Noting that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2009 are reliable, and the underlying transactions are legal and regular, MEPs approve the closure of the Agency’s accounts. However, they make 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 DEC/2010/2271):

• substantial increase in the budget: Members note that the Agency's budget increased by 28% from 2007 to 2009;
• performance: Members urge the Agency to implement an activity-based structure for the operational budget in order to establish a clear link between the work programme and the financial forecasts and improve performance monitoring and reporting. They stress that the Agency should prepare a multiannual plan every year, discussed with all stakeholders and approved by the Management Board. Once again, Members call on the Agency to set out, in a table to be annexed to the Court of Auditors' next report, a comparison of operations carried out during the year for which discharge is to be granted and in the previous financial year so as to enable the discharge authority to assess more effectively the Agency's performance from one year to the next;
• carryover of appropriations: Members draw attention to the fact that once again the Agency carried forward to 2010 a high level of appropriations for operating expenditure (65% from Title III – Operational activities - when assigned revenues are excluded from the carryovers). They stress that this is at odds with the principle of annuality and that this situation reveals weaknesses in the Agency’s resource planning system. They call for more accurate and timely management of contracts and for far more realistic forecasts to be presented to Parliament and the Commission for the next financial year, allowing sufficient time for these to be analysed;
• fees and charges levied by the Agency:Members note that 2009 was the second full year of implementation of certification tasks under Commission Regulation (EC) No 593/2007 on the fees and charges levied by the European Aviation Safety Agency. They call once more on the Agency to improve its monitoring system for certification projects to make sure that, over the entire project duration, the fees levied do not deviate significantly from the actual cost. They call on the Agency, specifically, to correctly estimate, for the establishment of the 2010 financial statements, the accrued expenditure related to the management of certification tasks outsourced to national Aviation Authorities;
• human resources: Members note the deficiencies in staff selection procedures highlighted by the Court which put at risk the transparency of these procedures. They urge the Agency to inform the discharge authority on the actions taken to redress this situation and make more transparent the selection procedures of its experts/staff. They stress that the impact of thesedeficiencies is even more crucial when considering that the Agency has the objectives of issuing certification specifications, taking decisions regarding the airworthiness and environmental certification and conducting standardisation inspections of the competent authorities in the Member States;
• internal audit: Members welcome the fact that the Agency has implemented 20 of the 26 recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) since 2006.