Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
1. Notes by way of background that the obscurity surrounding the handling by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) of the salary transfer affair in 2004 caused Parliament's rapporteur to propose postponement of the granting of discharge until the three investigations by OLAF, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the CoR itself had been carried through; a) Recalls that the majority of the members of Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and later the majority of Members of Parliament nonetheless decided to grant discharge without awaiting the results of these investigations and accordingly without the proper information needed to take such a decision; b) Notes that OLAF´s handing over of five cases involved in the affair to the Belgian authorities clearly demonstrates that the granting of discharge at the time was unwarranted and irresponsible; concludes that the Committee on Budgetary Control and Parliament thereby deprived themselves of the ability to hold those responsible in 2004 to account in the discharge process; c) Concludes that what happened then cannot be an issue in the discharge process concerning the implementation by the CoR of its budget in 2006; notes accordingly that with the clear improvements made by the CoR in its budget management since 2004 the granting of discharge this year cannot and should not be questioned;deleted