Brussels, 13/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On a proposal by Vice-President Neil Kinnock, the European Commission adopted a report on Friday drawing up a complete inventory of activities in 2000 of the Internal Audit Service whose role is to contribute to the sound management of financial resources. The Commission considers that at the end of the year 200, "much remains to be done, notably to guarantee its total independence in 2001", and states that the service's capacity only corresponded to a third of the final strength "because the principle constraint, still present in 2001, was the availability of appropriately qualified or experienced staff within the Commission or on reserve". The goal of recruiting 80 officials should be reached in 2002. Regarding training, it states that the success rate was rather low (38%), notably because the staff "had little time to prepare and may also have underestimated the work involved".
The report is nevertheless pleased to note that the main goals were achieved: towards the end of 2000, the Internal Audit Service was in place, its director appointed, its Charter adopted, the audit activities had begun and a basic infrastructure was there. The main aim of this service during that period was to establish and define the basic work for its future contributions. Investment into strengthening its capabilities absorbed most of the working time. As a reminder, the Internal Audit is an independent review function covering all areas of Commission activity, from simple payroll applications to complex structural fund programmes.