6.12.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 417/79

1.

The European Asylum Support Office (hereinafter ‘the Office’, aka ‘EASO’), which is located in Valletta, was established by Regulation (EU) No 439/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1) with the aim of enhancing practical cooperation on asylum matters and helping Member States fulfil their European and international obligations to give protection to people in need. Since 2015, the Office provides support to Greece and Italy in the context of the migration crisis. In 2016, the European Commission proposed to enhance the Office’s mandate and to considerably expand its tasks to address any structural weaknesses that arise in the application of the EU’s asylum system (2). Since March 2016, the Office’s teams in the hotspots also work on the operational implementation of the EU–Turkey Agreement and support the Greek Asylum Service.

2.

The Table presents key figures for the Office (3).

Table

Key figures for the Office

3.

The table shows that the considerable increase of the Office’s tasks resulted in a 2016 final budget which was more than three times higher than in the previous year. In addition the number of staff available in 2016 increased by 34 % and systems and procedures were still in the process of being adapted to cope with the new circumstances.

4.

This report should be read in the context of these challenges and the Court’s mandate which is governed by international audit standards.

5.

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

20.

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

21.

In August 2016 the Office launched an open procedure (five lots) to award a FWC to cover its needs for cultural mediators/interpreters in different countries. The total amount of the FWC for the four lots signed and audited (Lots 2 to 5) was 60 million euro over four years. These four lots were awarded to the same tenderer as first contractor-in-cascade. This contractor met the financial requirements of the selection criteria (1 million euro annual turnover) except for one of the three prior years, for which an availment contract was signed with a non-profit organisation which committed to make its ‘turnover’ available to the contractor. The Financial Regulation permits reliance on financial and economic capacities of other entities. However, in this case it is not clear how the ‘turnover’ of this entity can be made available, nor given the nature of its activities whether it can support the delivery of the services to be provided. The Office should have rejected the offer as it did not demonstrate compliance with the tenderers economic and financial capacity requirements. In consequence the framework contract and all related payments are irregular (no payments made in 2016).

22.

The special meeting of the European Council on 23 April 2015 and the 10 point plan on migration adopted by the Foreign and Interior Affairs Ministers on 20 April 2015 called upon Member States to ensure fingerprinting of all migrants. To meet this requirement there was an urgent need to increase the fingerprinting capacity of the Greek authorities. The Commission assigned this task to the Office. It necessitated the purchase and subsequent donation to the Greek State of 90 fingerprint-scanning machines and 90 compatible computers (equipment) for an amount of 1,1 million euro under a grant agreement between the Commission and the Office . The grant agreement required delivery of the equipment to the IT Division of the police in Athens and from there distribution to the hotspots located on the Greek Islands. The description of the action required Office staff to be on the spot to ensure a proper delivery, installation and subsequent ownership transfer to the Greek police. However, Office staff were not on the spot to meet this requirement and confirmation from the relevant Greek authorities that the equipment had been delivered to the hotspots in February and early March 2016 and is being used for its intended purpose was only received in July 2017.

23.

Contracting authorities shall request in writing details of the constituent elements of the price or cost, if these appear to be abnormally low, and shall give the tenderer the opportunity to present its observations (10). For two of the lots (Lots 3 and 5) procuring cultural mediators/interpreters in different countries (see also paragraph 21), the Office received financial offers which were 50 % and 31 % respectively lower than the next lowest offers. Whilst this is indicative of the offers being abnormally low, the Office did not consider it necessary to request any further explanation from the tenderer in this regard.

24.

In its audit report dated October 2016, the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) highlighted that there is no adequate planning for procurement procedures for administrative expenditure and that the monitoring of procedures and specific contracts concluded under framework contracts is weak. The Office and the IAS agreed on a plan to take corrective action.

25.

In 2016 the Office faced several challenges in its operating environment, including not only a substantial increase in its budget and expansion of its tasks, but also a significant increase in the number of transactions, a change of the accounting officer (accountant) with several interim solutions and the introduction of a paperless workflow system. This situation of considerable change and instability was neither mitigated by a re-validation of the accounting system nor by introducing a system of regular ex-post verifications of transactions (11).

26.

In 2014, the Commission on behalf of more than 50 EU Institutions and bodies including the Office signed a framework contract with one contractor for the acquisition of software licences and the provision of maintenance and support. The framework contractor acts as an intermediary between the Office and suppliers that can address the Office’s needs. For these intermediary services the framework contractor is entitled to uplifts of two to nine percent of the suppliers’ prices. In 2016, total payments to the framework contractor amounted to 534 900 euro. The Office did not systematically check prices and uplifts charged with the suppliers’ quotes and invoices issued to the framework contractor.

27.

An external evaluation of the Office’s performance in the period 2011 to 2014 was prepared on behalf of the Commission and the final report was delivered in December 2015. It confirmed the relevance of the Office’s mission and tasks and concluded an overall effective implementation of its key tasks and that the majority of expected results had been achieved. The evaluation also referred to a need to increase the efficiency of operations and to further ensure cooperation and coherence of activities with other EU and international institutions and bodies working on migration issues. The Office is implementing an action plan agreed with the Management Board in the light of its extended mandate, with the final implementation report planned for June 2017.

28.

The Office purchased and installed 65 containers to be used as mobile offices on the Greek and Italian hot-spots for a total amount of 852 136 euro. Some of the containers were placed in a location where similar containers not belonging to the Office were later destroyed by riots. The Office has not covered the containers against this risk with an insurance contract.

29.

The Office has not recovered all its due receivables in a timely manner. VAT reimbursements for the years 2014 (180 919 euro) and 2015 (245 960 euro) remained unrecovered at the end of 2016.

30.

The level of committed appropriations for Title II (administrative expenditure) carried over was high at 2,5 million euro, i.e. 43,9 % (2015: 1 076 583 euro, i.e. 36,9 %). The carry-overs mainly relate to IT infrastructure, translations and publications, business consultancy and Management Board meeting cost for which contracts were signed towards the end of 2016 and/or invoices were only issued in 2017.

31.

An overview of the corrective action taken in response to the Court's comments from previous years is provided in the Annex.