2001 discharge: European Monitoring Centre for drugs and drug addiction

PURPOSE : to present the Council recommendation on the on the discharge to be given to the Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2001. CONTENT : based on the observations contained in the Court of Auditor's report relating to the financial year 2001, the Council recommends that that Parliament give a discharge to the Director of the Centre in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2001. Recalling that the EUR 1,9 million (86%) of the EUR 2,2 million in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2000 to the financial year 2001 have been used and bearing in mind that EUR 2,4 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2001 to the financial year 2002 and whereas EUR 0,5 million have been cancelled, the Council believes that the observations in the Court of Auditors' report in relation to the financial year 2001 calls for certain comments to be made. These are as follows: The Council welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has been able to record a statement of assurance in respect of the reliability of the Centre's accounts for the financial year 2001, and in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions as a whole. The Council shares the Court's view on the need to improve the quality and the monitoring of the planning of the Centre's operational activities so as to respect the principle of budgetary annuality. The Council notes the Centre's willingness to follow the Court's recommendations on conducting checks on payments from imprest accounts and the documents to be supplied to substantiate proposals for the commitment of appropriations. The Centre should also incorporate the provisions on VAT in its financial regulation. Moreover, the Council considers that, in order to ensure rigorous monitoring of the different contracts, the managing departments should do their utmost to apply the rules on competition and to improve the procedures for evaluating tenders.�