1998 discharge: European Centre for the Development of vocational Training ECDVT budget (Thessaloniki)

The European Parliament adopted its decision granting discharge to the Management Board of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in respect of the implementation of its budget for the 1998 financial year. Parliament's Rapporteur was Ms. Heide RÜHLE (Green/EFA, D). 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 Agency and will require the recasting of the financial regulations and the introduction of activity-based budgeting. It also notes that the Centre expended scarce resources in the 1997-99 period to develop a tailor-made computer system to manage its budget and accounts, whilst a number of Agencies employ a decentralised application developed by the Commission, SINCOM2. It calls on the Centre to ensure that the old system is fully replaces before 1 July 2000 and expects that the new application will be vetted by the Commission and that adequate documentation and in-house expertise will be provided for. 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 welcomes the fact that the Centre has reduced its reliance on imprest accounts for payments and urges the further reduction in their use. Parliament congratulates the Centre on the official inauguration of its building in November 199 but is concerned that final approval is only foreseen for November 2000. The Court of Auditors is called upon to systematically follow up decisions of the discharge authority and to produce a comprehensive analysis of the audits of all Agencies. The EP calls on the Centre 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 launching of an external evaluation of the impact of the Centre's activities and asks that recommendations made in its last evaluation of 1995 be appraised, and calls for presentation to Parliament of the new strategy and action plan before 31/12/2000.�