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2012 discharge: European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

2013/2236(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) in which it recommended the European Parliament to grant discharge to the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality in respect of the implementation of the Institute'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 Institute for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approved the closure of the Institute’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.

  • Budget and financial management: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 95.56% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 63.95%. They acknowledged from the Institute that in the third quarter of 2014, it plans to create budget monitoring guidelines, including control functions and deviations, in order to ensure adequate monitoring and reporting of the budget implementation.
  • Commitments and carryovers: Members noted that the Institute has reduced the overall level of carry-overs of committed appropriations from 50% in 2011. They pointed out that the carry-overs to 2013 amount to EUR 2.5 million and mainly concern administrative expenditure. They noted that 7% of committed appropriations carried over from 2011 to 2012 had not been used and had to be cancelled.

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

Lastly, they acknowledged that the Institute's conflict of interests policy was presented to the Commission for consultation on 12 November 2013. They called on the Institute to inform the discharge authority of the results of that consultation and of the final adoption of its conflict of interests policy.