Activities of Dennis de JONG related to 2018/2209(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Agency for the Οperational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (now European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice) (eu-LISA) for the financial year 2017 PDF (194 KB) DOC (70 KB)
Amendments (7)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes with concern from the Court’s report that although the Agency paid the full price for construction works for its new premises in Strasbourg in 2016, the work is still not finalised, due to the inability of the contractor to deliver, and only 70 % of the works were covered by the accepted works progress reports; acknowledges that prepayments to the contractor were covered with bank guarantees, released progressively upon acceptance of works; takes note that the contractor submitted a financial claim and filed a court case against the Agency; notes from the Agency that it registered a statement of defence with the Administrative Court of Strasbourg, and that the Court’s decision is pending; calls on the Agency to report to the discharge authority on the final decision of the Administrative Court of Strasbourg;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes with concern that, according to the Court’s report, the small number of staff creates significant risks for the continuity of the Agency’s operations, particularly considering that the head of the Application Management and Maintenance unit also occupied ad interim the posts of Head of the Operations Department and Head of the Operations and Infrastructure Unit and thereby combined the three highest management posts in the Operations Department; welcomes in this regard the Agency’s countermeasure to appoint a different staff member as interim Head of the Operations and Infrastructure Unit; urges the Agency to fulfil all posts with permanent staff without further delay;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes with regret that the audit undertaken by the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) with respect to the Agency’s procurement processes found significant weaknesses, including two ‘very important’ issues regarding the estimation of contract values and key controls and three other findings rated as ‘important’; acknowledges that many of the weaknesses are related to the insufficient staffing of the Financial and Procurement Unit (FPU) and the procurement sector in particular; notes that the Agency has put in place an action plan addressing the audit findings and the IAS’s recommendations; calls on the Agency to report to the discharge authority on the measures taken to mitigate these weaknesses;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that, according to the Court’s report, the Agency uses extensively external contractors and that 90 % of the work relating to the development and implementation of IT projects is carried out by the Agency in a combined effort with the external contractors; notes with concern that although all phases of IT projects are under the Agency’s control, outsourcing the development of such sensitive IT systems to that extent creates considerable risk of over-reliance and over-dependency on contractors; acknowledges the Agency’s reply that the reducing outsourcing of tasks would require additional staffcomplete development of those systems in- house and reducing outsourcing of tasks would require a substantial increase of the staff of the Agency and that in order to ensure proper segregation of duties, contractors involved in quality assurance are not involved in providing external support to the operational management of large-scale IT systems;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that, according to the Court’s report, 90 % of the work relating to the development and implementation of IT projects is carried out by external contractors; notes with concern that although all phases of IT projects are under the Agency’s control, outsourcing the development of such sensitive IT systems to that extent creates considerable risk of dependency on contractors; acknowledges the Agency’s reply that the reducing outsourcing of tasks would require additional staff and that in order to ensure proper segregation of duties, contractors involved in quality assurance are not involved in providing external support to the operational management of large-scale IT systems; therefore, calls on the Agency to limit dependency on external contractors by better use of its own resources and to set up a proper policy to limit the use of external contractors;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Acknowledges the Agency’s existing measures and ongoing efforts to secure transparency, prevention and management of conflicts of interests, and whistleblower protection; notes with concern that the Agency does not publish the CVs of the members of its Management Board, nor of its managerial staff in general, only of its Executive Director; calls on the Agency to publish the CVs of all members of its Management Board and of its managerial staff; encourages the Agency to use the Independence Policy of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as a best practice and an exemplary system of monitoring and preventing any conflicts of interest;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Regrets that despite previous calls, the Agency does not publish the declarations of interests of the members of its Management Board, of its managerial staff in general, and of its executive director; calls for the publication of declarations of interests listing membership to all other organisations; stresses that it is not for the members of the Management Board, the managerial staff or the executive director to declare themselves out of conflict of interest but that a neutral body should assess the existence of conflicts of interest;