15.12.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 388/98

1.

The European Institute for Gender Equality (hereinafter "the Institute"), which is located in Vilnius, was established by Regulation (EC) No 1922/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 (1). The Institute’s task is to collect, analyse and disseminate information as regards gender equality and to develop, analyse, evaluate and disseminate methodological tools in order to support the integration of gender equality into all Union policies and the resulting national policies (2). The Institute became fully autonomous in 2010.

2.

The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, direct testing of transactions and an assessment of key controls of the Institute’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 Institute, 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 Institute, 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 Institute 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 Institute 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 Institute’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 Institute 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.

Total budgetary appropriations amounted to 7,5 million euro compared with 5,9 million euro the previous year. Budgetary commitments were made for an amount of 6,7 million euro. Appropriations carried over to 2012 amount to 3,3 million euro, 50 % of total commitments. This high level of carryover is at odds with the budgetary principle of annuality.

13.

The Court identified the need to improve the documentation of physical inventory taking for fixed assets and of the estimation of accrued charges.

14.

The European Commission’s Internal Audit Service carried out a “Limited review of the implementation of Internal Control Standards” at the Institute in December 2011. The Institute accepted the recommendations to finalise the procedure for the implementation of the Internal Control Standards and management adopted an action plan to be implemented in 2012.