2009 discharge: Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union CdT

PURPOSE: presentation by the Court of Auditors of its report on the annual accounts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2009, together with the Centre’s replies.

CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks and objectives conferred on it by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court of Auditors, in the context of the discharge procedure, addresses to the European Parliament and the Council a Statement of Assurance on the reliability of the annual accounts, as well as of the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them of each EU institution, body or agency, on the basis of an external, independent audit.

This audit also covered the annual accounts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT).

In the Court’s opinion, the Centre’s annual accounts presented “fairly, in all material respects”, its financial position as of 31 December 2009 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.

The Court also stated that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year ended 31 December 2009 were, “in all material respects, legal and regular”.

The report again confirmed that the Centre’s 2009 final budget amounted to EUR 62.63 million of direct EU contribution. The number of staff employed by the Centre at the end of the year was 202.

The report also included comments on the Centre’s budgetary and financial management, together with its replies. The main comments are as follows:

The Court’s comments:

·        non-conformity of the establishment, validation and booking of recovery orders for translations delivered to customers;

·        shortcomings as regards the ABAC accounting system.

The Centre’s replies:

·        a procedure for revenue management has been included in the Annual work programme 2010 of the Administration department;

·        efforts have been made to have the SI2 system supported until the implementation of ABAC, including, but not limited to, seeking an external expertise by way of subcontracting.

Lastly, the Court of Auditor’s report contained a summary of the Centre’s activities in 2009 in the following areas:

·        number of pages translated: 736 008;

·        number of pages by languages: EU official languages: 730 565; other languages: 5 443;

·        number of pages translated by freelances: 409 788.