Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

2012 discharge: European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA)

2013/2232(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 Executive Director of the European Fisheries Control Agency 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.

  • Budget and financial management: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 96% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 83%.
  • Commitments and carryovers: Members noted, however, that the level of committed appropriations carried over to 2013 was high for administrative expenditure at 35% and operating expenditure at 46%. This was due to a large extent by events beyond the Agency’s control, such as the late invoicing of the 2012 office rental costs by the Spanish authorities. An other important reason for the high level of carry-overs was the considerable workload faced by the agency as a result of the large number of IT projects that were either launched or ongoing in 2012 and this workload had an impact on the timeliness of procurement procedures in the case of two IT projects launched in 2012.

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 Agency will assess its policy on the prevention and management of conflicts of interests on the basis of the Commission's Guidelines on the Prevention and Management of Conflicts of Interests in EU Decentralised Agencies. They called on the Agency to inform the discharge authority of the assessment results once available.