1998 discharge: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions EFILWC budget (Dublin)

The European Parliament adopted its decision granting discharge to the Administrative Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in respect of the implementation of its budget for the 1998 financial year. Parliament's Rapporteur was Ms. Heide RÜHLE (Green/EFA, D). The Parliament notes that its demands for the Commission to reform its structure and financial management systems and the consequent change in the role of the Directorate-General for Financial Control will have a direct bearing on the Foundation and will require the recasting of the Financial Regulations and the introduction of activity-based budgeting. The Parliament expresses its disappointment that the Foundation has not fully implemented the SINCOM2 accounting system. It calls on the Commission to extend the system to encompass activity-based management for Agencies, including monitoring, auditing or evaluation of personnel, missions, documents and inventory, on the lines of the Integrated Resources Management System (IRMS). It encourages the Foundation to further reduce its reliance on imprest accounts for payments and welcomes the fact that usage has decreased considerably since 1997 and welcomes the fact that the Foundation has managed to reduce the cost of mission expenses through the use of strict guidelines, whereby low-cost tickets are used. The Court of Auditors is called upon to systematically follow up the decisions of the discharge authority and to produce a comprehensive analysis of the audits of all Agencies. The EP calls on the Foundation and the Court of Auditors to reduce the duration of the contradictory procedure to ensure that the annual report can be presented to Parliament before 15 July of the year following the financial year in question. Parliament welcomes the Foundation's preparation of its next four-year programme for 2001-2004, following the launch of an evaluation process in spring 1999, and notes with interest the progress in training staff and dedicating resources to monitoring and evaluating exercises. It calls on the Foundation to present to Parliament the results of its evaluation exercise and new strategy and action plan before 31/12/2000.�