1993 discharge: Centre for the Development of Vocational Training CDVT budget (Berlin)

The European Parliament granted the board of directors of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) discharge for the implementation of its budget for the 1993 financial year. In its decision granting discharge, Parliament took note of the figures in the Centre's accounts (which showed income of ECU 11,247,800.27 in 1993) and recommended that a part-time financial controller be appointed in order to reduce excessive recourse to the imprest account. The European Parliament noted that certain expenses had been cleared by the Commission (which would have used the Centre to translate documents drawn up within the framework of the FORCE programme) and therefore called on it to avoid this type of practice. At the same time, Parliament called on the Centre's board of directors to improve its operational management, especially when drawing up multiannual work programmes and evaluation reports. It called on it to present a budget based on these work programmes (mainly by re-introducing analytical expenditure accounts) in order to facilitate control by the budgetary authority. It also called on the Centre to guarantee that interested outside experts were able to tender for work to be carried out, that their services would be recorded systematically and that each contract would be evaluated so that it could be taken into account when new contracts were awarded. It also called on the Centre to examine the costs of translation, printing etc. before it transferred to Thessalonika in order to improve the Centre's profitability. The European Parliament felt that costs should be rationalized by ensuring that the Centre's activities did not overlap with those of other Community agencies with similar activities and therefore called on the Commission to present a report by 31 August 1995 on the integration of Union activities in this area in order to enhance the complementarity of the Centre's activities. Finally, Parliament called on the Commission to report by 31 May 1995 on the current situation regarding the transfer of the Centre to Greece (especially with regard to staff transfers).�