15.12.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 388/165

1.

The European Training Foundation (hereinafter "the Foundation"), which is located in Turin, was established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1360/90 (1). The Foundation’s task is to support the reform of vocational training in the European Union’s partner countries. As such, it assists the Commission in the implementation of various programmes (Phare, Tacis, CARDS and MEDA) (2).

2.

The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, direct testing of transactions and an assessment of key controls of the Foundation’s supervisory and control systems. This is supplemented by evidence provided by the work of other auditors (where relevant) and an analysis of management representations.

3.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court has audited the annual accounts (3) of the Foundation, which comprise the "financial statements" (4) and the "reports on the implementation of the budget" (5) for the financial year ended 31 December 2011, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

4.

As authorising officer, the Director implements the revenue and expenditure of the budget in accordance with the financial rules of the Foundation, under his own responsibility and within the limits of the authorised appropriations (6). The Director is responsible for putting in place (7) the organisational structure and the internal management and control systems and procedures relevant for drawing up final accounts (8) that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and for ensuring that the transactions underlying those accounts are legal and regular.

5.

The Court’s responsibility is to provide, on the basis of its audit, the European Parliament and the Council (9) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of the Foundation and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them.

6.

The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require that the Court plans and performs the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Foundation are free of material misstatement and the transactions underlying them are legal and regular.

7.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them. The procedures are selected based on the auditor’s judgment, including an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and of material non-compliance of the underlying transactions with the requirement of the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing those risks, the auditor considers internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts and supervisory and control systems implemented to ensure legality and regularity of underlying transactions, in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and reasonableness of accounting estimates made, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the accounts.

8.

The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for the opinions set out below.

9.

In the Court’s opinion, the Foundation’s Annual Accounts (10) present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2011 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer (11).

10.

In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Foundation for the financial year ended 31 December 2011 are legal and regular in all material respects.

11.

The comments which follow do not call the Court’s opinions into question.

12.

The Foundation has not yet adopted and implemented a treasury policy to minimise and spread financial risk while aiming at adequate returns. The account is kept in a bank which no longer has the minimum rating as indicated by the Commission.

13.

The Court identified 64 contracts with a total value of 2 million euro which were not countersigned by the Foundation’s contractor, creating legal uncertainty.

14.

Maintenance and essential services such as heating, water and electricity are not ensured for the Foundation’s premises since the Consortium responsible for facility management went into liquidation in November 2011.The situation regarding the Foundation’s premises is unsatisfactory and puts its activities at risk of disruption.

15.

The Foundation needs to further improve the transparency of its recruitment procedures. The threshold scores for admission to interviews and written tests were not set in advance and questions for oral and written tests were not set before the applications were examined by the selection boards.