ES ES DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO

Parlamento Europeo
2014-2019
Comisión de Control Presupuestario
20.6.2016
DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO
sobre el Informe Especial n.º 11/2016 del Tribunal de Cuentas Europeo
(aprobación de la gestión 2015) titulado «Refuerzo de la capacidad
administrativa en la antigua República Yugoslava de Macedonia: limitados
progresos en un contexto difícil»
Comisión de Control Presupuestario
Ponente: Tomáš Zdechovský
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Introduction
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership since
2005, however the Council until now has not decided on a framework for opening
negotiations. During the 2007-2013 period, the EU allocated 615 million euros under the
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA I) to help the country prepare for accession.
The country also received financial support under multilateral programmes covering the
whole of the Western Balkans.
The Court audited projects financed from IPA I in three major sectors: public administration
reform (12 % of the total allocation), transport (18 %) and environment (16 %).
ECA findings
The ECA arrived at the conclusion that:
– there was relatively limited progress in strengthening administrative capacity in key areas
during the audited period. Working in a difficult context, the Commission did not, for
many of the projects examined, sufficiently ensure the effectiveness of their contribution
towards strengthening administrative capacity;
– all of the projects audited included activities designed to strengthen administrative
capacity but they did not succeed in addressing sufficiently many weaknesses. For some
key areas in which strong legislation already existed there was little assistance under IPA
during the period audited and there was no significant progress on implementing that
legislation. In other key areas IPA projects had little impact in the absence of active
support from the national authorities;
– the projects audited were generally sound and well-managed, but results were often only
partially achieved or not adequately followed up. Most projects delivered the planned
outputs, but these were often not fully exploited. Frequently the projects achieved only
limited impacts and were not always sustainable. Impact was also weakened because the
projects were ambitious and spread across a wide range of priorities;
– the audited projects did not always fit into a coherent, cohesive and coordinated approach
towards strengthening administrative capacity. Some projects did not follow on from
previous assistance in the same sector and were not adequately followed up with further
support. There was often a gap of 4 years or more between establishing the need for
assistance and the delivery of project results;
– decentralised management of IPA funds has allowed for a valuable transfer of knowledge.
However, there would have been fewer delays and de-commitments if decentralisation
had been implemented more gradually. While strengthening administrative capacity was
not included as an objective of decentralising management, the experience gained could
have been used more effectively by the national authorities to contribute towards an
overall improvement in administrative capacity in the public administration;
– the mechanisms for political dialogue were well-suited to support reform in the country,
but did not contribute significantly towards strengthening overall administrative capacity
during the audited period. This is because of the lack of political will in the country to
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tackle some of the obstacles to reform, and reduced leverage for the Commission to
encourage reform in sensitive areas in the absence of the framework for dialogue provided
by accession negotiations.
ECA recommendations
In light of its findings, the ECA recommended that the Commission should:
– concentrate its assistance for strengthening administrative capacity on ranked priorities
that take account of significant weaknesses in key areas. Examples of areas in which the
ECA noted a need for improvement are:
(i)
efficiency of the public procurement system, for example by further developing
electronic procurement;
(ii)
transparency of public spending, for example by improving the availability and
quality of data on corruption cases reported in order to allow scrutiny by civil
society and the wider public;
(iii) internal control, for example by improving the standing and professional skills of
internal auditors.
– intensify efforts in the transport and environment sectors to strengthen administrative
capacity to contract, implement and manage projects, for example by providing tailored
training for contracting authorities, better promoting ‘learning by doing’ activities and
providing wider access to JASPERS and secure strong commitment from the national
authorities to bring national legislation into line with EU legislation and strengthen the
link between capacity-building and EU support;
– make better use of policy instruments to reinforce the commitment by the national
authorities to the reform process, including a prolonged and active follow-up of outputs
and impacts. This should be closely followed up in the IPA monitoring committees;
– when planning projects, better rank priorities in sequential steps and reflect this when
programming and implementing IPA funds and use a larger part of the IPA allocation to
provide fast-track, flexible and targeted support on urgent and sensitive issues of policy
and acquis;
– use the decentralised management mode more selectively with regard to the volume of
funds and the complexity and sensitivity of projects to decentralise.
– in the context of the renewed opportunity for strengthening administrative capacity to
better implement reform, use political dialogue to:
(i)
secure a firm commitment to strengthening the capacity to tackle corruption and
improve transparency;
(ii)
require the country to further build on its ‘track record’ of corruption cases so that it
becomes a meaningful tool for assessing progress in the fight against corruption;
(iii) increase the focus on monitoring results in reversing the backsliding on public
administration reform, including the implementation of legislation in areas such as
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public procurement and PIFC;
(iv) agree targets and deadlines, for a structured approach to tackle obstacles to
strengthening administrative capacity to implement key areas of the acquis.
Recomendaciones del ponente para su posible inclusión en el informe sobre la aprobación de
la gestión de la Comisión para 2015
1. Acoge con satisfacción el informe del Tribunal de Cuentas, se suma a sus
recomendaciones y anima a la Comisión a que tenga en cuenta estas recomendaciones
cuando trabaje sobre el refuerzo de la capacidad administrativa de la Antigua República
Yugoslavia de Macedonia;
2. Se muestra preocupado por el hecho de que se hayan hecho progresos limitados en el
refuerzo de las capacidades administrativas sin avances significativos en la aplicación de
la legislación en algunos ámbitos fundamentales como el desarrollo de una función
pública independiente y profesional;
3. Observa que solo se han hecho progresos parciales para abordar la corrupción y mejorar la
transparencia;
4. Pide a la Comisión que inicie el diálogo con los dirigentes de todo el espectro político, las
autoridades nacionales y expertos sobre el poder judicial y la observancia de la ley a fin de
encontrar un acuerdo sobre una lucha activa contra la corrupción y la delincuencia
organizada y sobre la aplicación de medidas y mecanismos estrictos para prevenir la
corrupción y la delincuencia organizada en consonancia con el Derecho penal del país;
5. Recomienda firmemente que la Comisión use el diálogo político y los contactos con las
autoridades nacionales para mejorar la eficiencia del sistema de contratación pública y la
transparencia del gasto público;
6. Pide a la Comisión que dé prioridad a la lucha contra la corrupción y lamenta la falta de
una estrategia gubernamental eficaz en la lucha contra la corrupción;
7. Pide a la Comisión que, al abordar el IAP II, se base en los logros de los proyectos
concluidos con éxito, que sean duraderos, tengan un valor añadido cuantificable y se
hayan ejecutado y utilizado de conformidad con la reglamentación;
8. Se congratula de que la Comisión haya creado proyectos orientados hacia las
organizaciones de la sociedad civil; pide a la Comisión que continúe esta práctica y
establezca relaciones estrechas con las ONG locales;
9. Anima a la Comisión a que diseñe proyectos que refuercen los derechos y la posición de
los denunciantes de irregularidades cuando atraigan la atención pública hacia casos de
corrupción y fraude;
10. Toma nota de que, según el informe del Tribunal de Cuentas, aunque muchos proyectos
estuvieron bien gestionados, los resultados no siempre fueron duraderos o ni siquiera se
lograron; observa además que los proyectos no siempre se ajustaron a un enfoque
coherente orientado a mejorar el desarrollo de la capacidad administrativa; pide a la
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Comisión que mejore la planificación estratégica y vele por la sostenibilidad y la
viabilidad de los proyectos haciendo que el cumplimiento de estos criterios sea un
requisito previo de los proyectos;
11. Pide a la Comisión que respete estrictamente los principios de la buena gestión financiera
y que ayude a diseñar proyectos que sirvan de trampolín para ulteriores inversiones en el
país; anima a la Comisión a que dé prioridad a proyectos con un potencial elevado en
ámbitos clave como la contratación pública o los procedimientos de selección, y a que
evite la financiación de proyectos con un impacto solo a corto plazo;
12. Anima a la Comisión a que, en el marco del IAP II, ponga a disposición fondos que estén
listos para su utilización en caso de tener que abordar rápidamente asuntos urgentes.
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