Ministers' Deputies / Rapporteur Groups

GR-PBA
Rapporteur Group on Programme, Budget and Administration

GR-PBA(2016)8                     28 July 2016[1]

 

Oversight Advisory Committee – 2016 annual report – follow-up to recommendations

Information document – follow-up to the GR-PBA meeting of 5 July 2016

 

Further to the GR-PBA meeting of 5 July 2016 (cf. GR-PBA(2016)CB3), this document summarises the action the Secretary General intends to take with regard to the recommendations of the Oversight Advisory Committee contained in their annual report (CM(2016)86).

Recommendation 1: The OAC recommends that the Secretary General includes a requirement to maintain the risk management framework including taking mitigating actions into his annual Financial Delegation letter; and reflects significant reservations relating to internal controls that are raised by external and internal audit and other reviews in his annual statements of internal controls issued together with the financial statements.

The Financial Delegation letter for 2017 will contain a specific reference to the Risk Management policy of the Organisation, which was adopted in June 2016, and the Secretary General will refer in his annual statements of internal controls to any significant weaknesses of internal controls identified by internal and external audits and the way they are addressed.

Timeframe: January and May 2017.

Recommendation 2: The OAC recommends that the DPFL continues a process of consultation with stakeholders to simplify and possibly combine all or some of the four annual Financial Statements and Budgetary Management Accounts documents issued by the Council of Europe. The reform should focus on simplification and relevance for decision-making as well as for accountability. The underlying decisions and rationale for the annual accounts, including their format, should be critically questioned.

At its 2016 May meeting, the Budget Committee welcomed the improved format of the Budgetary Management Accounts (BMA), which have been restructured in close co-operation with the chair of the Budget Committee to render the information more precise and adapted to the needs of the readers and at the same time reduce the volume of the document. The efforts to simplify the presentation of the BMA will continue.

Concerning the Financial Statements, the Financial Regulations require that they are prepared in accordance with IPSAS; any departure from these accounting standards would prevent their certification by the External Auditor.

The possibility of presenting only the consolidated financial statements to the Committee of Ministers without the individual statements of Eurimages and the NSC has been analysed, but is not feasible because their presentation is required in the Statutes of these Partial Agreements. The Secretariat, in consultation with the External Auditor, will continue to take into consideration the clear presentation of the Financial Statements respecting the IPSAS framework.

Timeframe: On-going.

Recommendation 3: The OAC maintains its recommendation that the Committee of Ministers and the Secretariat accelerate the efforts towards funding of the employee benefit liability.

The Committee of Ministers is aware of the situation in respect of the funding of the employee liability.

It is recalled that the Pension Reserve Fund (PRF) was set up to stabilise member States’ contributions for pensions in the long term. In this connection, the performance of the Pension Reserve Fund will be reviewed in the context of the third three-year review of the PRF to be conducted by the Management Board in 2016.

An actuarial study will be carried out in 2017 to determine the level of member States contributions to the PRF from 2018.

This item was examined again by the GR-PBA at its meeting on 5 July 2016: on this occasion, delegations called for a sustainable approach with regard to the financing of the Organisation’s pension obligations (cf. GR-PBA(2016)CB3, paragraph 1.2).

Timeframe: On-going.

Recommendation 4: The OAC notes the efforts of DIO to support decentralised evaluations through training, ad hoc support and an inventory of such studies. It also notes the recent “reflection paper” on the possible roles of DIO plans to play in this area. It recommends that DIO takes the necessary steps to ensure that the provisions of the Evaluation Policy relating to decentralised evaluations are realised. This includes:

•           Facilitate the evaluation of programmes, projects and activities by providing technical support, set evaluation standards and support the harmonisation of the evaluation function;

•           Ensuring that the overall evaluation activity results in a representative coverage of the Council of Europe activities and results;

•           Maintaining a repository of decentralised evaluation reports; and

•           Distilling the findings and lessons learned from the decentralised evaluations and bringing them to Council of Europe managers and supporting knowledge networks and take measures to ensure they are acted upon.

Achievement of this recommendation will require a sizable reallocation of existing resources of the Evaluation Division to these decentralised evaluation activities.

The work programme of the DIO for 2017 will be prepared bearing in mind this recommendation and taking into consideration the work which DIO started during 2016 in this field.

Timeframe: March 2017.

Recommendation 5: The OAC takes note of the progress made and recommends the completion and implementation of the risk measures noted above and in particular: the harmonisation of MAE risk registers, the use of dedicated software, and the implementation and follow-up of mitigating measures.  In addition it suggests: linking risks to programming and budgeting, review risk incidents and the eventual issuance of a high quality annual risk management report.

Risk management is being further enhanced within the Organisation in accordance with the Risk Management policy adopted in June 2016. In order to ensure a smooth integration into management practices, its implementation will be gradual and training and ad hoc support will be provided to managers and staff. Risk Management is now an integral part of the Project Management Methodology.

Timeframe: On-going.

Recommendation 6: The OAC recommends that the Council of Europe:

Provide a grade to the investigator post commensurate with the skill and position requirements;

            Finalise the draft investigation instruction without further delay; and

•           Reviews and updates its website for reporting allegations and link the site to the home page.

The Committee of Ministers decided to include an additional post at A1/2/3 level in the budget for 2016-17 for the investigator. The external recruitment procedure underway will hopefully allow the Organisation to recruit a suitably qualified candidate.

The Investigation rule has been signed by the Secretary General in June 2016.

DGA and DIO are currently amending the fraud reporting websites in line with the suggestions made by the OAC.

Timeframe:       Recruitment – before the end of 2016

                        Websites – September 2016


[1] This document has been classified restricted at the date of issue; it will be declassified in accordance with Resolution Res(2001)6 on access to Council of Europe documents.