2012 discharge: EU general budget, European Data Protection Supervisor

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Bogusław SONIK (EPP, PL) in which it called on the European Parliament to grant discharge to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in respect of the implementation of the European Data Protection Supervisor's budget for the financial year 2012.

Members welcomed the fact that on the basis of its audit work, the Court of Auditors concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2012 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error. They observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics related to human resources and procurement for the EDPS.

Budgetary and financial management: Members noted that in 2012, the Supervisor had a total of EUR 7.624 million in commitment appropriations, and that the implementation rate of those appropriations was 89.69%, an increase since 2011). They found this a positive development but called for further efforts to improve the implementation rate and for the changes made to be monitored.

EDPS’s framework action: Members also made a series of observations on the daily management of the EDPS and called for:

further improvements regarding the monitoring of allowances and performance levels;

• an assessment of the financial impact of structural changes made ​​recently and the implementation of electronic system of case management;
• continued implementation of the recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) of the Commission;
• the inclusion of an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the Supervisor's disposal, broken down by category, grade, sex and nationality in the next annual activity report;
• the strengthening of cooperation with other institutions to develop a unified methodology of presenting the translation costs.