A4-0224/95

Decision giving discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Parliament for the 1993 financial year

The European Parliament,

-having regard to its Rules of Procedure, and in particular to Rule 166(3),

-having regard to Article 77 of the Financial Regulation and Article 13 of the Internal Rules for the implementation of the budget of the European Parliament,

-having regard to the revenue and expenditure account and the financial statement for the 1993 financial year (SEC(94)0164),

-having regard to the Court of Auditors' annual report for the 1993 financial year,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A4-0224/95),

1.Adopts the figures closing the accounts of the European Parliament for the 1993 financial year on the basis of the following amounts:

>>> HERE, ATTACHED FILE (TABLE or GRAPHIC) ON WORDPERFECT 5.1

Administration of the building projects in Brussels

2.Notes that the decisions to alter the original nature of the project and the terms of the contract were made by the political authority and do not fall within the scope of the decision to give discharge;

3.Instructs its Secretary-General to submit to the Committee on Budgetary Control, no later than the end of 1995, a detailed report on all elements of the investment costs for the D1 building;

4.Calls on the Belgian authorities to honour their undertakings concerning land relating to the building complex by establishing and adopting all the necessary measures and legal mechanisms to this end no later than 31 December 1995, and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Parliament bears no financial liability relating to land for the D3 building, as from that date; instructs its Committee on Budgetary Control to have the legal and financial situation created by these various commitments assessed by the administration and to report to Parliament on its findings;

5.Confirms the assessments of the management of the building projects in 1992 and 1993 adopted by the Bureau of Parliament on the basis of two reports by its Committee on Budgetary Control; instructs its Secretary-General to submit a report to Parliament on the action taken following these assessments and to submit procedural proposals concerning the budgetary treatment of multiannual purchases;

6.Reminds the various elements of the administration responsible for the execution of the budget that they are obliged under Article 206(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 89(3), (4) and (5) of the Financial Regulation to take action on the positions contained in this report; calls on them, in this connection, to exercise the greatest vigilance in applying the provisions in force concerning public contracts and building contracts, including, in particular, the rules adopted by the Bureau on 10 February 1988, and to ensure, in respect of any commitment entered into by the institution in the area of building policy, that prior budgetary authorization is requested, the relevant funds are committed, and the legislation on public contracts is respected;

7.Instructs its Committee on Budgetary Control to monitor the actions of the Secretary-General intended to institute procedures to ensure the effectiveness of the provisions relating to the financial responsibility of the persons entrusted with the execution of appropriations;

8.Instructs its Committee on Budgetary Control to prepare, on the basis of proposals by the administration, a draft text with a view to revision of the relevant internal rules and regulations, with the objective of ensuring that there is consistency between the provisions concerning discharge and those concerning decisions to overrule refusals of approval by the financial controller;

9.Recalls its resolution of 24 October 1986 regarding the principles for implementing and monitoring Parliament's budget, which advocated an even more clear-cut separation of responsibilities between authorizing officers, the Accounting Officer and the financial controller; reiterates its insistence on the initiatory and managerial role of the authorizing officer in the commitment and use of appropriations, as provided expressly in the financial regulations;

10.Considers that Parliament's control and accounting services should not be integrated into a specific authorizing officer's sphere of authority;

11.Instructs its Legal Service to consider to what extent and under what conditions Parliament could participate, for instance as a civil party, in any legal action against its contractors or other third parties involved in construction and planning activities, in such a way as to enable it to obtain information which would serve to protect its financial interests;

Concerning the sum requiring regularization entered in the accounts for the 1982 financial year (Members' Pay Office)

12.Points out that the discrepancy of BF 4 136 125 between the cash situation and the accounts, an amount which was excluded from the scope of the discharge granted for the financial year 1982, will have to be regularized when the Luxembourg Commercial Court has given judgment in the case brought on 22 March 1995 by the European Parliament against La Royale Belge S.A., with whom Parliament took out, on 30 June 1976, the insurance policy provided for in Article 75 of the Financial Regulation;

Matters relating to the 1993 financial year

13.Instructs its Committee on Budgetary Control to examine the conclusions of the audit undertaken by the Court of Auditors and the report commissioned by the Data-processing and Telecommunications Directorate from a private company, both of which imply criticism of the effectiveness of the institution's data-processing policy;

14.Notes the fact that the canteens, bars, restaurants and staff shops are being placed under an indirect management regime and that the procedure of launching further calls for tenders, for all Parliament's places of work, is already under way and is to be concluded by the end of the present financial year;

15.Welcomes the fact that the administration of the canteens, bars, restaurants and staff shops is now fully budgetized via an imprest account system;

16.Regrets the fact that the recommendations of the report drawn up by a private company on the inventory procedures will not be implemented until the next physical inventory in 1997; calls for its Committee on Budgetary Control to be informed as soon as possible of the state of progress concerning incorporation of these recommendations in the inventory procedures;

17.Calls, in view of the comments of the services responsible for the physical inventory for 1994, for its Committee on Budgetary Control to be informed of the final results of that inventory as soon as they are available;

18.Gives its Secretary-General discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the 1993 financial year;

19.Authorizes the giving of discharge to the Accounting Officer for the 1993 financial year.