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2011 discharge: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

2012/2195(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ADLE, NL) on discharge to be granted to the Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in respect of the implementation of the Centre’s budget for the financial year 2011.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2011 are reliable but has delivered a qualified opinion on the legality and the regularity of the transactions underlying the Centre’s accounts, Members 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 performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

Financing, budget and financial management: the Centre's budget for the year 2011 was EUR 56 656 000, which represents a decrease of 2% compared to 2010.

Implementation rate of appropriations and carryovers: Members acknowledge, from the 2011 annual accounts that the budget execution at the end of 2011 increased slightly and reached 96%. The budget execution, in terms of payments, reached 76%. They note that out of the total budget for 2011, 20% was carried over to 2012. They call on the Centre to inform the discharge authority of the actions taken to address this deficiency as this high level of carryover.

Qualified opinion of the Court of Auditors: Members deplore the fact that the Court of Auditors qualified its opinion with regard to irregularities in the management of one framework contract concluded in 2009 due to fact that the Centre subsequently amended the contract, which led to payments above the set ceiling which were considered irregular and their amount exceeded the materiality threshold. They note that the Centre consulted the Court of Auditors on further action once it discovered the irregularity and took steps to rectify the situation by centralising all ICT services, as well as taking further steps to prevent possible irregularities in the future.

Lastly, Members made a series of observations as regards the Centre’s procurement and recruitment procedures, accounting system, grants and internal audits.