2009 discharge: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ECDC

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

Noting that the Centre’s annual accounts for the financial year 2009 are reliable, and the underlying transactions are legal and regular, MEPs approve the closure of the Centre’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):

• performance: Members, once more, call on the Centre to set out 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 Centre's performance from one year to the next. Overall, Members underline the importance of the Centre and welcome its contribution to measures combating the H1N1 virus pandemic in 2009. Its responsibilities should be strengthened so that the Union has its own capacity to assess the seriousness of risk of infection. Members observe in passing that, in 2009, the Centre developed a large number of products and services in the areas of the epidemiology, surveillance, prevention and control of contagious diseases;
• carryover of appropriations: Members areconcerned that already in 2006 the Court of Auditors reported a high level of carryovers for the Centre and that the appropriations carried forward from 2008, amounting to EUR 2.2 million, had to be cancelled. They also note that, in 2009, appropriations carried forward represented 42 % of Title II – Administrative expenditure and 63 % of Title III – Operational expenditure. They call therefore on the Centre to inform the discharge authority of the measures taken to redress this deficiency;
• the Centre’s seat: Members welcome the fact that, in the end, a Seat Agreement was signed by the Chair's Management Board and the Swedish Minister for Public Health and Elderly Care, as well as an accompanying change in the law to enable the Centre's staff and their families to be included in Sweden's population register;
• internal audit: lastly, Members are concerned about the fact that, again, the Centre has not comprehensively fulfilled its obligation to send to the discharge authority a report drawn up by its Director summarising the content of the Internal Audit Service (IAS) recommendation. They urge, therefore, the Director of the Centre to provide information to the audit service and call on it to follow the recommendations concerning the need to update and reinforce financial procedures for commitments and payments.