Discharge 2024: General budget of the EU - European Parliament

Tabled by Julien Sanchez

… with the aim of guiding their knowledge and capacity on financial management; Added: recalls that the ECA’s 2024 Annual Report highlighted various shortcomings identified in its audit sample, such as weaknesses in public procurement procedures conducted by Parliament (notably an IT contract whose duration was insufficiently justified), others concerning a political group that awarded three high-value contracts that did not always comply with Parliament’s regulations by failing to seek a sufficient number of bids, errors in declared VAT, and the use of a lump-sum amount higher than the actual costs for the reimbursement of staff members’ travel expenses; points out that the Court regularly identifies such issues (notably as early as the 2022 annual report) regarding the political groups and is surprised that, despite this, all political groups received an unqualified opinion on their accounts from the external auditors selected by Parliament, calling into question the criteria for their selection and oversight by Parliament, this also implies that political groups which relied on the opinions of the external auditors appointed by Parliament, who validated their accounts, could in good faith have considered their accounts to be compliant; calls on Parliament to fully comply with the financial rules applicable to it; is surprised that this information has not led to any action by Parliament; questions Parliament’s equal treatment of political groups and its apparent intention to exercise less control over some than others, in disregard of the principle of fairness; further questions why only dissolved groups are subject to thorough scrutiny; wonders when non-dissolved groups will be subject to the same level of control and transparency;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE783.024