2013 discharge: EU general budget, European Data Protection Supervisor

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) called on the European Parliament to give discharge to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in respect of the implementation of the budget of the EDPS for the financial year 2013. Members welcomed the conclusion of the Court of Auditors that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2013 for administrative and other expenditure of the EDPS were free from material error and that the supervisory and control systems were effective. Furthermore, no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect to the audited topics related to the human resources and procurement for the Supervisor.

Budgetary and financial management: Members observed that the Supervisor had a total allocated budget of EUR 7 661 409 and that the implementation rate was 84.7 % (83.2 % in 2012). They found this a positive development and called for further efforts to improve the implementation rate. They also noted that the implementation rate of expenditure on persons working with the institution was 93.41 % and that the expenditure on buildings, equipment and expenditure in connection with the operation of the institution was 99.14 %.

Actions of the EDPS: the committee welcomed the fact that the Supervisor took note of the observations made by Parliament in its 2010 and 2012 discharge resolutions when drawing up his strategy for 2013-2014 and that the implementation of the strategy had brought about positive results. However, it made a series of observations on the Ombudsman’s daily management and asked for:

·        information about the budgetary impact of the reorganisation of the Supervisor's secretariat;

·        notification of how many times the video-conference system was used in meetings in 2013;

·        the EDPS continuing to provide the scoreboard in the annual activity report;

·        clarifications on buildings policy;

·        an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the Supervisor's disposal, with a break-down according to grade, sex and nationality;

·        the introduction of an equal opportunities plan specifically geared towards management posts;

·        a reduction in the costs of away days;

·        strengthening cooperation with the other institutions to work out a uniform method of presenting translation costs;

·        the introduction of a procedure to assess the possible impact of certain publications in advance, with a view to publishing them along with an explanatory report so as to avoid them being used in a biased way.

Lastly, Members were concerned by the delayed adoption of the internal whistleblowing rules. They considered, in general, that the Supervisor should pay greater attention to the principle of sound financial management.