2017 discharge: European Asylum Support Office (EASO)

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Asylum Support Office for the 2017 financial year.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2019/2226 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Asylum Support Office for the financial year 2017.

CONTENT: the European Parliament has refused to grant the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office discharge in respect of the implementation of the Office’s budget for the financial year 2017.

The decision is accompanied by a resolution of the European Parliament containing the observations which form an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 2017 financial year.

In its resolution, the European Parliament justified its unfavourable opinion on the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts for the financial year 2017 by recalling that, according to the Court of Auditors' report, the material and systematic instances of non-compliance of payments with the EASO Financial Regulation and other applicable rules and provisions mainly relate to public procurement and recruitment procedures underlying payments.

It regretted that the combined error from non-compliant payments amounts to at least EUR 7.7 million or 10.3 % of the total payments made by the Office in 2017. The systematic nature of non-compliances demonstrates an inadequate internal control system.

Parliament deplored the findings of OLAF as regards irregularities surrounding the breach of procurement procedures, misappropriation of Union funds, mismanagement, abuse of position in human resources issues, breaches of data protection rules, harassment and inappropriate behaviour towards staff in 2017.