13The documents before the Court clearly indicate that the author of the contested memorandum acted with the agreement of the appointing authority. The Parliament confirmed the contents of the memorandum at issue, as is shown by the dismissal of the complaint against the said memorandum by the Secretary General of the Parliament on 18 July 1990. Moreover, since the applicants were informed of the clear, precise and reasoned refusal by the Director General for Personnel, Budget and Finance of the request which had been sent to him by their immediate superior seeking payment to them of the allowance in question, they were legitimately entitled, in view of the status of that authority, to regard his refusal to grant them the allowance in question as a decision of the competent authority (see the judgments of the Court of Justice in Joined Cases 161/80 and 162/80 Carbognani and Coda Zabetta ν Commission [1981] ECR 543, paragraph 14, and in Case 65/83Erdini ν Council [1984] ECR 211, paragraph 7).