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2013 discharge: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

2014/2109(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the financial year 2013.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament postpone its decision on granting the Director of the Centre discharge in respect of the implementation of the joint undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2013.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2013 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members called on the Parliament to approve the closure of the Centre’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.

  • Centre’s financial statements: Members noted that the final budget of the Centre for the financial year 2013 was EUR 58 315 000, representing an increase of 0.2 % compared to 2012. The overall contribution of the Union to the Centre's budget for 2013 amounted to EUR 56 727 000.
  • Commitments and carry-overs: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a relatively low budget implementation rate of 92.96 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 74.14 %, with cancellations of appropriations appearing in all budget titles. Regarding administrative and operational expenditure, the levels of committed appropriations carried over to 2014 were 26% and 44% respectively. Members also identified weaknesses in respect of the budgetary planning and execution for operational meetings, mainly due to overestimated attendance levels and hotel and flight costs.

Members also made a series of observations on procurement and recruitment procedures, internal controls and internal audit.

With regard to the legality and regularity of transactions, the committee noted that for one procedure launched in 2013, there was conflicting information between the contract notice and the tender specifications which may have affected the competitive process and the outcome of the procedure. It acknowledged the Centre's initiative to strengthen the area of procurement by establishing the Procurement Section and the Legal Services Section.