2011 discharge: EU general budget, Court of Auditors

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) in which it calls on the European Parliament to grant the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors discharge in respect of the implementation of the Court of Auditors' budget for the financial year 2011.

Members note that the Court of Auditors' annual accounts are audited by an independent external auditor in order to apply the same principles of transparency and accountability that it applies to its auditees. They emphasise that in 2011, the Court of Auditors' commitment appropriations amounted to a total of EUR 134.337 million and the implementation rate for those appropriations was 93% last year. They encourage the Court of Auditors to continue to assess the quality and impact of its work.

Moreover, Members encourage the Court of Auditors to examine what lessons can be learned from the recently revealed harassment case and call for preventive measures to safeguard against workplace harassment and for details of all measures taken in respect of staff in the private offices of Members of the Court of Auditors.

On an operational level, Members note that the Court of Auditors made a total of 379 audit visits in 2011, 343 to Member States and 36 to third countries. They call on the Court of Auditors to increase both the number and effectiveness of on-site audit visits. In this respect, they reported a total of seven cases of suspected fraud arising from its audit work to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

Lastly, they agree with the internal audit service recommendations to create a new set of key performance indicators to measure the implementation of that strategy.