2012 discharge: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2012, and called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2012.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approved the closure of the Agency’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed 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: Members recalled that the budget of the Agency for the financial year 2012 was EUR 15.3 million. They noted at the same time that that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 94.64 %.

·        Carryovers: Members saw with concern that EUR 3 200 000 (22 % of the budget) had been carried over to 2013 and, that the high level of the carryover might be explained by the multiannual nature of certain projects. They also noted the cancellation rate for certain appropriations was mainly the result of frozen recruitment procedures.

Members also made a series of observations ontransfers, procurement and recruitment procedures as well as comments on internal controls.

Lastly, they asked the Agency to strengthen transparency and prevent conflicts of interests, as well as make publicly available the Declarations of Interests of certain members.