11/4/14, "EU auditors refuse to sign off more than £100billion ($150 billion US) of its own spending," UK Telegraph, by Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, and Peter Dominiczak
"According to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors, seen by The Telegraph, £5.5 billion ($8.2 billion US) of the EU budget last year was misspent because of controls on spending that were deemed to be only “partially effective” by experts.
The audit, published this morning, found that £109 billion ($163 billion US) out of a total of
£117 billion ($175.3 billion US) spent by the EU in 2013 was "affected by material
error”.
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It means that the Brussels accounts have not been given the all clear for 19 years running. Treasury sources said that the disclosure shows why the EU needs “urgent reform”.
It means that the Brussels accounts have not been given the all clear for 19 years running. Treasury sources said that the disclosure shows why the EU needs “urgent reform”.
Mr Cameron has said he will refuse to pay “anything like” the £1.7 billion on
December 1, despite being threatened with fines by the EU.
The damning finding by the auditors emerged as senior figures in Brussels criticised Mr Cameron for refusing to pay the bill, which was demanded because of the success of Britain’s economy.
The audit concluded that the European budget needed better management at a time of “continuing pressure on EU and national finances”. “More can and should be done to ensure money is spent according to rules,” it said.
Among the examples of misspent money was funding used to buy helicopters to help Spain defend Europe’s borders against entry by illegal immigrants.
“[Auditors] examined a project in Spain which consisted of the purchase of four helicopters, to be used 75 per cent of their operating time for EU border surveillance and control. However, the ECA found the helicopters were only used 25 per cent of the time for this purpose,” said the report.
In another case, the commission handed out £1.4 million ($2.1 million US) in funding for social development in Moldova “for which no underlying expenditure had been incurred”....
The damning finding by the auditors emerged as senior figures in Brussels criticised Mr Cameron for refusing to pay the bill, which was demanded because of the success of Britain’s economy.
The audit concluded that the European budget needed better management at a time of “continuing pressure on EU and national finances”. “More can and should be done to ensure money is spent according to rules,” it said.
Among the examples of misspent money was funding used to buy helicopters to help Spain defend Europe’s borders against entry by illegal immigrants.
“[Auditors] examined a project in Spain which consisted of the purchase of four helicopters, to be used 75 per cent of their operating time for EU border surveillance and control. However, the ECA found the helicopters were only used 25 per cent of the time for this purpose,” said the report.
In another case, the commission handed out £1.4 million ($2.1 million US) in funding for social development in Moldova “for which no underlying expenditure had been incurred”....
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, appeared to accuse Mr Cameron of exaggerating the impact of the bill....Dominic Raab, the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton, said: “It's hard to swallow the British taxpayer being stung, when the Brussels boondoggle squanders £5 billion in a year and fails to produce clean accounts in almost two decades.”
Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, said: “For the EU to demand £1.7 billion from us on December 1 is laughable especially when vast sums – far greater than that – are misspent every year by Brussels.
“They need to put their house in order before making these ridiculous demands of the British people. It is breathtaking hypocrisy at a time when they cannot even run their own affairs.
Syed Kamall, the leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, described the demand for extra money from British taxpayers as a “joke”.
“Voters and the press won’t hear people in Brussels saying that these are mostly administrative mistakes,” he said.
“They will be asking why has the EU not signed off its accounts for 20 years?""...
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