2010 discharge: EU general budget, European Ombudsman

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (S&D, ES) in which it calls on the European Parliament to grant the European Ombudsman discharge for budget implementation in the financial year 2010.

Members stress that in 2010 annual report the Court of Auditors states that it ‘has no observation to make on the European Ombudsman’. They point out, nonetheless, that the Court of Auditors had asked the European Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) to draft provisions on the procedures for recruitment of temporary staff. The Ombudsman considers that the Court of Auditors should have notified it of the outcome.

Members also note that in 2010 the Ombudsman had available a total of EUR 9 332 275 in commitment appropriations (as against EUR 9 million in 2009) and that the utilisation rate for those appropriations was 89.65%, which was below the average for the other institutions due mainly to a fluctuation in staff numbers. They stress that the Ombudsman has a purely administrative budget, 79% of which is accounted for by expenditure relating to persons working with the institution, 15% by buildings, furniture, equipment and miscellaneous operating expenditure, and 6% by expenditure resulting from general functions carried out by the institution. In general, they call for better financial planning ensuring more efficient budget implementation.

Members welcome the audit carried out by the Internal Audit Service in 2010, which took account of observations made in 2009 and concluded that, subject to implementation of the agreed measures, the management and control system is effective.

Lastly, they call for the annual report on the European Ombudsman’s activities in 2011 to contain a section on any action taken on Parliament’s discharge resolution, together with a comprehensive table of all the human resources available to the Ombudsman, showing their category, grade and gender, participation in professional training and nationality.