BETA

Activities of Ramona STRUGARIU related to 2019/2083(DEC)

Shadow reports (1)

REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency for the financial year 2018
2020/03/04
Committee: CONT
Dossiers: 2019/2083(DEC)
Documents: PDF(204 KB) DOC(75 KB)
Authors: [{'name': 'Joachim Stanisław BRUDZIŃSKI', 'mepid': 197501}]

Amendments (10)

Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2018 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Agency for the financial year 2018;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 5 #
Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1
1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency for the financial year 2018 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency for the financial year 2018;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
3. Notes from the Court’s report that 3. in 2018 the Agency had financing agreements with cooperating countries for operational activities, representing 59 % of the Agency’s budget; notes the launch of a new simplified financing scheme based largely on unit costs for expenditure related to deployments of human resources, and, in late 2018, of a new ex-post control system covering all types of expenditure and also the modification of its system of ex-ante checks embedded in the financial circuits; highlights the Court’s emphasis that the reimbursement of equipment-related expenditure is still based on actual cost and that the project to move to unit-cost based reimbursements is still unsuccessful; furthermore, notes with concern the Court’s observation that since 2014 the proof of actual costs claimed by cooperating countries for equipment- related costs is still insufficient and that the Agency’s ex-ante verifications of these costs are ineffective if they are not substantiated by supporting documents; notes the absence of ex-post verifications on reimbursements by the Agency, further increasing the risk of unjustified cost reimbursements; notes with concern that the Agency allowed several reimbursements for expenditures claimed by cooperating countries in spite of the latter not providing the evidence indicated and required by the Agency; acknowledges from the Agency's reply that supporting documents indicating detailed costs were submitted by the cooperating countries in question; calls on the Agency to clearly indicate in the future the type of supporting documents it accepts as required evidence; further calls on the Agency to only reimburse legally justified expenditure; expects the Agency to rapidly introduce solid ex-post verifications on reimbursements and to report to the discharge authority on the progress made in this regard by June 2020;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that, following the management board’s approval of the reorganisation of the Agency structures in 2017 affecting the allocation of resources, an updated structure was adopted in 2018 and completed by new internal rules of procedure as well as by delegations and sub-delegations that were formalised by the decision of the executive director;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that in the context of the European integrated border management, the largest operational activities were the 12 joint operations at the external land, air and sea borders while the main operational focus in 2018 was on the Central, Eastern and Western Mediterranean areas which experienced the most significant migratory pressure; furthermore, notes thwelcomes the close interagency cooperation, especially in the field of coastguard function but also in the field of customs and law enforcement cooperation; notes that the Agency is working towards setting proper quantitative objectives and specific target values for the joint operations expected to be included in the Single Programming Document 2021-2023;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
8. Notes furthermore from the Court’s report that although the Agency continued further recruitment efforts and increased the number of staff from 526 to 630 in 2018, it still did not achieve the number of 760 staff authorised set out in its 2018 establishment plan; notes the Agency’s reply that a total of 187 vacant posts were filled, but that due to a high internal and external turnover, the net staff increase in 2018 as compared to 2017 was 117 since many posts had become vacant during the year; notes furthermore that the Agency faces challenges in attracting a large number of suitable external candidates and achieving a sound geographical balance mainly due to the low correction coefficient, which is the lowest among all the Union agencies; stresses that agencies located in countries where a low correction coefficient is applied should receive further support from the Commission in implementing complementary measures in order to make them more attractive to current and prospective staff; calls on the Commission to assess the impact and viability of applying salary correction coefficients in the future; notes that the Agency continues to have difficulties in maintaining a desirable sound geographical balance in staff deployed;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
14. Notes with appreciation that the Agency participates actively in inter- institutional tenders led by other institutions, and that, in the procurement procedures of the maritime surveillance domain, the Agency seeks cooperation with Union agencies with similar activities and prepares the terms of reference accordingly; notes furthermore that in 2018 the Agency has handled its first Agency’s led inter-institutional tender procedure with the European Fisheries Control Agency;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
15. Acknowledgppreciates the Agency’s existing measures and ongoing efforts to secure transparency, prevention and management of conflicts of interest, and whistle-blower protection; notes that the whistleblowing policy was adopted on 18 July 2019; welcomes the fact that the Agency provides staff with access to confidential counsellors and trainings concerning whistle-blowing procedures; furthermore, notes that with the aim of being more transparent, the Agency launched a multilingual version of its website in all 24 official languages of the Union and that the communication strategy will be adopted by the end of 2019; regrets however that the Agency publishes statements of commitment, declaring the absence of conflict of interest for the members of the management board, the executive director, and the deputy executive director, and not declarations of interest; recalls that it is not for the members of the management board, the executive director, and the deputy executive director to declare themselves in absence of conflict of interest; calls on the Agency, with the aim to increase transparency, to publish the CVs and declarations of interest for all members of its management board, the executive director, and the deputy executive director, by June 2020;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
17. Notes with concern from the Court’s report that the Agency does not have a sensitive post policy that would identify sensitive functions, keep them updated and define appropriate measures to mitigate the risks of vested interests; calls on the Agency to adopt and implement such a policy to be in line with the Agency’s internal control standards; acknowledges from the Agency's reply that at the end of 2019 the Agency was finalising the process of adopting a sensitive post policy;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
19. ObservesWelcomes that, in light of comments and observations from the discharge authority related to the construction of the new headquarters building and the establishment of a European school in Warsaw, that in 2019 an adequate plot of land was attributed to the Agency by the Polish authorities and planning is ongoing to build a purpose- designed premises of the Agency’s headquarters by the end of 2024, and that the board of governors of European schools is to be proposed by Polish authorities in Autumn 2019 to consider accreditation of a Warsaw associate European school of type II, which would be operational partly as from the 2020- 2021 academic year;
2020/02/03
Committee: CONT