It looks like EU chief Jose Manuel Barroso needs help with his sums
By VINCE SOODIN
October 24, 2006
BUNGLING Brussels bureaucrats have failed to make EU books add up for the 12th year in a row.
Independent accountants refused to give the Commission’s 2005 accounts the all-clear after raising questions about millions of individual payments made out of the euro-budget.
It has prompted allegations of mismanagement and fraud at the EU which is led by president Jose Manuel Barroso.
Dubious spending included splashing European taxpayers' cash on a project in SOUTH AMERICAN state Columbia which was branded “ineligible”.
The European Court of Auditors led by its president Hubert Weber repeats familiar concerns about mismanagement of funds and the opportunities for fraud in the budget totalling nearly £70billion.
Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth called for a “name and shame” system for governments accused of mismanaging EU funds.
He said: “This is public money which is being spent and we are entitled to know who is mis-spending it.
“The inability of the EU to account for its spending is one of the key
concerns of the British people."
The auditors gave a “positive statement of assurance” about the accounts but said they could not give an unqualified assurance about some of the “underlying transactions” which total tens of millions.
One case cited involved a multi-million pound development aid project in Columbia being part-funded by the EU budget.
The scheme faltered “for good management reasons", said one official. An amount of £900,000 was advanced earlier than originally stipulated.
The auditors said of the Colombia spending: “There was no question of ineligible expenditure.”
Defending its accounts EU Commission vice-president Siim Kallas said: “One will always find errors in individual transactions in any organisation but we have effective mechanisms to claw back any undue payments.”
The Commission has regularly pointed the finger at EU Governments themselves - because 80 per cent of EU spending is filtered through national and regional authorities.
thesun.co.uk