The unaudited, unaccounted for, gravy train that is the EU.

ircoha

One of the EU's financial regulations (2342/2002, Article 87(4)) says there is no need to attempt recovery of any sum less than a million euros.

The EU admits to having 662 bank accounts in 45 different countries.
It admits some of them are offshore, but refuses to say how many, where they are, or why they are there.
It also admits to having "dealings with" another 214,000 bank accounts across the globe.

And 416 of its accounts are imprest accounts, which means the recipients of public funds can draw down the money on their own signatures.

The abuse of the MP expenses system as recently highlighted in Brussels is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Court of Auditors is powerless:
The Court of Auditors (CoA) admits that 80 per cent of all taxpayers money is never properly accounted for. Some estimates put the figure as high as 95 per cent, based on the CoA's admission that only administrative expenses (5 per cent of the total) are fully audited and signed off.
One CoA member freely admitted that the EU was already too big ever to be audited properly.
http://eca.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/aboutus

is_that_so

Is there a point to this?
Seriously though in relation to the Treaty what is your point?
Are you for or against?
Should we pull out of the EU? Clean it up?
Is the EU evil or just badly mismanaged?
How does this information help me or anyone else reading it?

sink

To be fair this is a forum on European Politics not just the lisbon treaty. Obviously the treaty is dominating atm, but next week it will be all over and this forum will still be here. In regards to the ECA, i'm not really knowlegeble enough to comment. I wouldn't take the OP's message at face value i'm sure there is more to it as there almost always is.

Scofflaw

ircoha wrote: »

One of the EU's financial regulations (2342/2002, Article 87(4)) says there is no need to attempt recovery of any sum less than a million euros.

The EU admits to having 662 bank accounts in 45 different countries.
It admits some of them are offshore, but refuses to say how many, where they are, or why they are there.
It also admits to having "dealings with" another 214,000 bank accounts across the globe.

And 416 of its accounts are imprest accounts, which means the recipients of public funds can draw down the money on their own signatures.

The abuse of the MP expenses system as recently highlighted in Brussels is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Court of Auditors is powerless:
The Court of Auditors (CoA) admits that 80 per cent of all taxpayers money is never properly accounted for. Some estimates put the figure as high as 95 per cent, based on the CoA's admission that only administrative expenses (5 per cent of the total) are fully audited and signed off.
One CoA member freely admitted that the EU was already too big ever to be audited properly.
http://eca.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/aboutus

I've commented on this piece of mythology before, and I'm not terribly interested in doing it again here - the basic points are:

1. fraud in the EU budget is estimated at c. 300 million, of which virtually all is recovered. That's about 0.25% of the EU budget.

2. virtually all this fraud takes place in the national governments' handling of funds (90%+ of EU funds are disbursed through national governments)

3. the yearly audit passes the standard "fair and accurate representation" test every year, and always has done so

4. the irregularities that are referred to are things like late payments and incomplete paperwork. The audits find that these are not concealing fraud, but in theory could do so.

5. the yearly qualification that is given to the EU accounts is that they do not eliminate the possibility of fraud - not the actuality of fraud, which is detected by audit

6. what the EU accounts actually fail is the test in (5), which is an additional test the EU imposed on itself - to eliminate even the possibility of fraud, as well as achieving a perfect track record on paying suppliers and completing paperwork.

I'm also fascinated by the last point you mention - that the "EU was already too big ever to be audited properly". The EU civil service consists of 30,000 people - compared to the Irish civil service of 350,000. Its budget, even including CAP and structural funds, is only €116 billion - twice the size of Ireland's, a sixth the size of the UK's. Excluding CAP and structural funds (34% and 31% respectively, spent entirely through the national governments) the EU budget is only €40 bn - less than Ireland.

How is that "too big"? And where is your source for that claim? Or any of your claims? Your link simply points to the Court of Auditors website home page.

Finally - really only 662 bank accounts? Between my family and my business I probably have nine or ten bank accounts in three countries - which is to say I have 1.5% of the EU total! I can assure you that my annual budget is well below the matching €1.7 billion. How the heck do they manage it?

cordially,
Scofflaw

Scofflaw

Oh, by the way, for comparison, the Irish government maintains something in excess of 1000 quangos, with 5000+ board members (half of whom are directly appointed by the various ministers) and a total annual budget of €13 billion. Try finding a list of the quangos (it's possible, but difficult), and their boards, staff, remits, and budgets.

Good luck! See you in a couple of years!

cordially,
Scofflaw

BMH

There needs to be some add-on that automatically +1s every new Scofflaw post when you log in.