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2009 discharge: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction EMCDDA

2010/2169(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Georgios STAVRAKAKIS (S&D, EL) calling on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction discharge in respect of the 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 welcome the Centre's initiative to run a computerised network for the collection and exchange of information called "European information network on Drugs and Drug Addiction". They also note that this network has given rise to an increased volume of work on thematic aspects and policy documents;
  • carryover appropriations: Members call on the Centre to put in place appropriate instructions and procedures for the analysis of potential carry-forwards in order to reduce the volume of appropriations carried over to the minimum necessary. They also consider it important for the Centre to improve the programming and the monitoring of activities with a view to reducing carry over;
  • cash management: although they welcome the fact that the Centre has further enhanced the annual forecast of its cash needs, they call for a clarification of the applicable rules on internal assigned revenues in the light of the questions which were raised after the refund of part of the accumulated surplus of the Translation Centre to the Centre. They suggest that in future a joint approach amongst the agencies should be adopted to deal with this type of horizontal problem;
  • human resources: Members call on the Centre to continue and ensure consistent implementation of the approved staff appraisal procedure through adequate information and guidance to reporting officers and jobholders;
  • internal audit: lastly, Members welcome the Centre’s initiative of providing the discharge authority with the Internal Audit Service (IAS)'s Annual Internal Audit Report on the Centre. They note in this respect that the IAS found deficiencies in the Centre's compliance with the current Commission's guidelines for grant agreements. They call on the Centre to inform the discharge authority of the progress made on risk management and invite it to implement without delay the IAS’s "very important" recommendations.