2017 discharge: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2017, together with the Centre’s reply.

CONTENT: the Court of Auditors carried out the audit on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDD).

In brief, the Centre’s main task is to collect, analyse and disseminate information as regards drugs and drug addiction in order to prepare and publish information at European level.

Statement of assurance and reliability of the accounts

The Court considered that:

- the Centre’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2017 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer;

- the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017 are legal and regular in all material respects.

The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of the Centre, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows:

The Court’s observations

Financial management

Agencies should introduce a single solution for the electronic exchange and storage of information with third parties participating in public procurement procedures (e-procurement). As the same requirement exists for all EU Institutions, the Commission is developing a comprehensive IT solution covering all phases of public procurement procedures. The Commission launched tools for electronic invoicing (e-invoicing), for the electronic publication of documents related to contract notices (e-tendering) and for the electronic submission of tenders (e-submission). By the end of 2017, the Centre was not yet using any of these tools.

The Centre’s replies

Financial management

The EMCDDA is complying with the ‘e-procurement’ related requirements in accordance with the relevant EU legal framework and the timetable established in this context for the rollout of ‘e-procurement’ in the EU. Since 2017, it has planned the preparatory operations required to be able to use ‘e-tendering’ and ‘e-submission’ from October 2018. The execution of this plan is in progress and the EMCDDA expects to meet this deadline with no major problems.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Centre’s key figures in 2017:

Budget

EUR 16 million (in payment appropriations).

Staff

111 including officials, temporary and contract staff and seconded national experts.