Information note on Special Report No.23/98 of the Court of Auditors concerning the information and communication measures managed by the Commission

Information note on Special Report No.23/98 of the Court of Auditors concerning the information and communication measures managed by the Commission¹:
The Court's audit:

The subject of the audit was the EU information policy as implemented in the Member States mainly by the Commission Offices. The audit covered a sample of 100 information projects checked at the Commission and in five Member States (see paragraph 4). There is insufficient definition of objectives to be achieved through the funding of measures/projects from budget line B3-300 and in practical terms some projects which had no demonstrable link with information policy activities have benefited from financial support (see paragraph 12). Commission Offices should be directed towards a Community-wide coherent information policy which leads to an equal treatment of similar projects. The implementation of the information measures of the Commission as stipulated in the annual work programmes of DGX failed to standardise the application procedure, the project selection procedure, the extent of the Community contribution, the budget line to be charged, or the eligibility of expenditure incurred (see paragraphs 28-32).

The Court's main recommendations:

In order both to simplify the management procedures and to guarantee transparency and equal treatment of final beneficiaries the Commission should

- increase the use of calls for proposals in the selection of final beneficiaries

- establish a standard financial form defining the categories of eligible expenditure, which can be used by the beneficiary as the basis for making the final report

- fix a single rate of financial contribution for projects based on a unified calculation basis with the sole exception of information networks funded through a lump-sum grant

- limit the percentage of the initial advance to a prudent level of the amount of the financial contribution approved

- fix a maximum level of the overhead costs as a proportion of the total costs (see paragraphs 36-37).

The Commission Offices should play a leading role in both the financing of permanent networks and the PRINCE information activities. For these purposes the Commission should establish a policy and financial planning framework in order to define the overall objectives of information policy, the management systems and the indicative funds available, including a distribution among objectives of those funds. In this context, DGX must reinforce its internal co-ordination role in order to ensure an improvement in the Commission's information and communication activities (see paragraph 39).

This information note is only to provide a summary. For any further information please refer to the full text of the Special Report adopted by the Court of Auditors and published in the Official Journal C389, 14.12.98, p1.

European Court of Auditors - External Relations Department
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Tel: +352-4398-45314; Fax: +352-4398-46430; E-mail: euraud@eca.eu.int

^1.The figures in brackets refer to the numbers of the relevant paragraphs in the Special Report.

Internet:http://www.eca.eu.int/english/notinf/insr23_98en.htm