1.12.2016

Official Journal of the European Union

C 449/46

REPORT

on the annual accounts of the Community Plant Variety Office for the financial year 2015, together with the Office’s reply

(2016/C 449/08)

INTRODUCTION

The Community Plant Variety Office (hereinafter ‘the Office’, aka ‘CPVO’), which is located in Angers, was created by Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 (1). Its main task is to register and examine applications for the grant of Union industrial property rights for plant varieties and to ensure that the necessary technical examinations are carried out by the competent offices in the Member States.

The Table presents key figures for the Office (2).

Table

Key figures for the Office

	2014	2015
Budget (million euro)	14,7	14,7
Total staff as at 31 December (1)	45	46

INFORMATION IN SUPPORT OF THE STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

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 (where relevant) and an analysis of management representations.

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

(a)	the annual accounts of the Office, which comprise the financial statements (3) and the reports on the implementation of the budget (4) for the financial year ended 31 December 2015, and

(b)	the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

The management’s responsibility

The management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Office and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions (5):

(a)

The management’s responsibilities in respect of the Office's annual accounts include designing, implementing and maintaining an internal control system relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies on the basis of the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer (6); making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. The President approves the annual accounts of the Office after its accounting officer has prepared them on the basis of all available information and established a note to accompany the accounts in which he declares, inter alia, that he has reasonable assurance that they present a true and fair view of the financial position of the Office in all material respects.

(b)

The management’s responsibilities in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions and compliance with the principle of sound financial management consist of designing, implementing and maintaining an effective and efficient internal control system comprising adequate supervision and appropriate measures to prevent irregularities and fraud and, if necessary, legal proceedings to recover funds wrongly paid or used.

The auditor’s responsibility

The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the European Parliament and the Council (7) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The Court conducts 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 the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Office are free from material misstatement and the transactions underlying them are legal and regular.

The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts.

The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for its statement of assurance.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts

In the Court’s opinion, the Office’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2015 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.

Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts

10.

In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 are legal and regular in all material respects.

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

COMMENTS ON BUDGETARY MANAGEMENT

12.

The level of committed appropriations carried over was high for Title II (administrative expenditure) at 395 882 euro, i.e. 28 % (2014: 394 599 euro, i.e. 30 %). They mainly relate to IT projects (134 030 euro), mission costs (96 368 euro) and costs related to internal audit (82 070 euro) for which services will only be delivered or invoices received in 2016.

13.

The rate of cancelled 2014 carry-overs was high for Title II at 20 % (2014: 26 %) and indicates weaknesses in their planning.

OTHER COMMENTS

14.

The expenditure for procedures associated with appeals was in principle to be covered by appeal fees (8). However, these fees cover only a small part of the actual costs incurred. In 2015, the income derived from appeal fees totalled 11 000 euro (2014: 12 500 euro) whilst the costs of the board of appeal members amounted to some 62 037 euro (2014: 80 114 euro).

15.

As at 31 December 2015, the fees unpaid for more than 90 days (mostly annual fees) amounted to 240 766 euro. The Office did not use all options provided for in its Financial Regulation to recover unpaid fees, such as enforced recovery (9).

FOLLOW-UP OF PREVIOUS YEARS’ COMMENTS

16.

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

This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Baudilio TOMÉ MUGURUZA, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 13 September 2016.

For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President

(1) OJ L 227, 1.9.1994, p. 1.

(2) More information on the Office's competences and activities is available on its website: www.cpvo.europa.eu.

(1) Staff includes officials, temporary and contract staff and seconded national experts.

Source: data provided by the Office.

(3) These include the balance sheet and the statement of financial performance, the cash flow table, the statement of changes in net assets and a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.

(4) These comprise the budgetary outturn account and the annex to the budgetary outturn account.

(5) Articles 38 to 42 of the Financial Regulation of the Office.

(6) The accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer are derived from the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) issued by the International Federation of Accountants or, where relevant, the International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

(7) Articles 87 to 92 of the Financial Regulation of the Office.

(8) Recitals of Commission Regulation No 1238/95 (OJ L 121, 1.6.1995, p. 31).

(9) Article 53 of the Financial Regulation of the Office.

ANNEX

Follow-up of previous years’ comments

Year

Court's comment

Status of corrective action

(Completed/Ongoing/Outstanding/N/A)

2014

The Office uses electronic banking for most of its payments. The Accounting Officer or her two deputies can sign the payments electronically. No signature of a second person is required, which represents a financial risk for the Office.

Outstanding

2014

Although the Office became operational in 1995, there is still no seat agreement signed with its host Member State that would clarify the conditions under which the Office can operate and that it can offer to its staff.

Ongoing

THE OFFICE’S REPLY

12.	The Office takes note of the Court’s comments regarding the level of carry-overs on Title II and considers that the carry overs were justified.

13.	The Office takes note of the Court’s comments regarding the cancellation of 2014 carry-overs.

14.	The appeal fee, has been fixed in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1238/95 in the amount of 1 500 euro and is enforced as such by the OffIce.

15.	The Office takes note of the comments regarding unpaid fees, and, notwithstanding that the CPVO Basic Regulation has specific penalties which are applied in the case of non-payment, will investigate the possibility of cost effective recovery of amounts owed.