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2012 discharge: European Police College (CEPOL)

2013/2229(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 Police College (Cepol) in respect of the implementation of the College'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 College for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approved the closure of Cepol’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 95.1% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 76%.
  • Commitments and carryovers: they also noted with concern that out of the committed appropriations carried over from 2011 amounting to EUR 1.7 million, EUR 700 000 (41.2%) were cancelled in 2012 mainly due to lower than estimated costs to be reimbursed under the 2011 grant agreements (EUR 440 000 of cancelled carry-overs). They regretted that the carry-over to 2013 of committed appropriations for the 2013 Exchange Programme was irregular.

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

They acknowledged that the College will review its conflicts of interests arrangements currently in place with the aim of developing a specific conflict of interest policy in 2014 on the basis of the Commission's Guidelines on the Prevention and Management of Conflicts of Interests in EU Decentralised Agencies and called on the College to inform the discharge authority on the review results once available.