Auditors told to put price-tag on EU budget errors

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administration, audit and anti-fraud, has called on the Court of Auditors to put a price-tag on the cost of EU accounting errors when it publishes future annual reports on spending of the Union’s budget.

He told MEPs in a debate on the court’s report on 2005 spending that the body should "evaluate the substantive impact of errors". He said that the report in its current form "gives no information on the true impact on Community funding". The court should "clearly distinguish between irregularity and fraud" and publish separate figures for the level of fraudulent transactions and administrative mistakes, he told MEPs.

Kallas said that the court had the expertise to provide that level of information and was already providing "value for money" assessments in its special reports.

He was responding to the report published in October by the court into the control of spending of the 2005 budget which, for the twelfth year running, declined to give assurance as to the legality and regularity of underlying transactions.

Kallas pointed out that the court had checked a sample of 900 transactions in 2005 but only found four cases of suspected fraud or wrongdoing. When the EU’s anti-fraud unit OLAF investigated these cases, it could not find any evidence of fraud, he said.

But MEPs were critical of the Commission’s performance in improving control of spending, citing cases in the farming and R&D?sectors. Kallas said that the court’s criticisms in these areas were "deserved".

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administration, audit and anti-fraud, has called on the Court of Auditors to put a price-tag on the cost of EU accounting errors when it publishes future annual reports on spending of the Union’s budget.