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2013 discharge: European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA)

2014/2115(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 Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) for the financial year 2013.

It called on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’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 Agency 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 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.

  • Agency’s financial statements: Members noted that the final budget of the Agency for the financial year 2013 was EUR 9.216.900, deriving entirely from the Union budget.
  • Commitments and carry-overs: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.64 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 83.85%. They observed, however, that for operational expenditure, the level of committed appropriations carried over was high, resulting mainly from the large number of IT projects that were either launched or ongoing during 2013.

Members also made a series of observations on procurement procedures, recruitment, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests and internal controls.

They noted that the Agency’s obligation to publish declarations of interests did not apply to the members of its Advisory Board. They called on the Agency to publish the CVs of the Executive Director, Heads of Units and members of the Administrative Board and declarations of interests of members of the Advisory Board in order to contribute to transparency.