‘Dosh for nosh’ scam leaves auditors with nasty taste in their mouths

By David Cronin

Date: 05/02/04

THE Court of Auditors has voiced concerns that MEPs can use money earmarked for political activities to buy food and drink.

In an internal document obtained by this newspaper, the Luxembourg-based auditors spotlight an apparent lack of controls over the €34 million spent by seven of the European Parliament's political groups and 15 "non-attached" deputies in 2001.

A summary of the paper was included in the auditors' annual report last November, but the observations contained in the internal paper are more hard-hitting.

The funding is allocated under the Parliament's "3701" budget for "political and information activities": the auditors complain this definition is imprecise. "For example, most of the members' social activities (eg meals, cocktails), carried out individually or in groups, can be loosely justified as political or information activities," they note.

They say there is a "particularly high" risk that MEPs could be using the budget line to defray expenses for which they receive other allowances: just signing the attendance register already provides MEPs with a daily allowance of €150 for accommodation and meals.

Political groups only request that members "declare on their honour" that they have used up their own allowances. "This reduces the effectiveness of checks aiming at detecting a double-financing of the same expenditure from different budget items," the watchdogs add.

Criticism is also made about lax standards applying to contracts for the political groups' staff.

An internal European Court of Auditors document, seen by European Voice, reveals concerns over an apparent lack of controls over the €34 million allocated for political and information activities.