Auditors attack Commission’s Kosovo aid

Date: 10/05/01

By John Shelley

THE Court of Auditors has attacked the European Commission's €400 million aid operation during the Kosovo crisis as inefficient, short-staffed and badly-monitored.

They say that emergency support to the region by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was poorly coordinated with programmes run by the United Nations and non-governmental organisations.

In a special report on aid during the conflict between March and July 1999, auditors' president Jan Karlsson blames poor back-up from Brussels for hampering efforts by staff on the ground to help thousands of refugees.

"ECHO staff and experts displayed considerable commitment in an extremely complicated emergency situation," he states. "However, the regulatory and procedural framework and the lack of decision-making power in local offices had an adverse impact on the capacity of ECHO to respond quickly and effectively to the changing circumstances."

Karlsson says that delays in getting some initiatives up and running meant money was not spent in the best way. Programmes continued longer than initially planned and were sometimes extended simply through a desire to use up the budgets.

As well as poor coordination with the UN, Karlsson also identifies a "gap" between the field staff trying to relieve the suffering of the refugees, and Brussels officials with the decision-making powers.

This resulted in ECHO experts spending "a lot of time on practical and administrative matters instead of discharging their primary responsibilities".

In its defence, the Commission stresses that the €400m budget was almost double the sum originally planned for the region and that staff were inevitably over-stretched.

The EU executive insists that its efforts were at least as effective as that of similar donors such as the USA and member states.

"Given the scale, complexity and speed of the crisis on the ground it would have been astonishing if ECHO's experts had not encountered the kinds of problems with monitoring mentioned by the Court," says the Commission in its written reply to the auditors' findings.

It continues: "The Commission does accept that there can be difficulties in finding a balance between financing humanitarian actions in good time whilst at the same time maintaining financial controls. This is an ongoing challenge faced by ECHO and all major public sector donor organisations."

The Commission states that improvements have been made to procedures since the Kosovo conflict. Officials have started discussions with the UN about better coordination of future aid projects and measures have been taken to speed up the process by which staff in Brussels approve contracts.

The Court of Auditors has attacked the European Commission's €400 million aid operation during the Kosovo crisis as inefficient, short-staffed and badly-monitored.