Budgets: “Straight Arrow” Rides Again?
- October 25th, 2006
- Posted by 7thmin
A Court of Auditors’ report has produced reservations on the annual EU budget administered by the European Commission.
However the Commission has expressed satisfaction with the outcome, saying the auditors found mostly minor errors, and not wrong-doing.
The EC Vice President for Audit and Anti-fraud., Siim Kallas , said (23.10.06) transactions had been shown to be legal and regular.
There had been “teething problems” over a few years in implementing a new accrual accounting system – installed by the EC in the context of a large house-cleaning, in the wake of past financial scandals.
In 80% of EU business, member-state governments spend the money allocated by the Commission, including the big-ticket Agriculture budget; and the auditors have criticised cases where re-payments of benefits wrongly allocated were made by a national government not the actual beneficiaries.
Reference:
Court of Auditors of the European Communities (2006), Annual Reports Concerning the Financial Year 2005 … together with the institutions’ replies. Brussels.
Siim Kallas, Commission’s Preliminary Reply to European Court of Auditors’ Annual Report 2005, SPEECH/06/25. Strasbourg, 23 October 2006.