Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-20-Speech-4-020"
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"en.20081120.3.4-020"2
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"Mr President, Mr Caldeira spoke of risk as of an important error factor in the preparation of this report. May I take a moment to focus on European Development Fund issues. The fund provides aid to countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Their risk differs from that of Member States, and is also greater than in the Member States. It is important that the Court has concluded that the transactions underlying the income and commitments for the budget year are lawful and correct. This general conclusion gives us grounds to view the report as a whole with approval.
On the other hand, the number of errors in the transactions underlying the payments is high. The Court has questioned the Commission’s dynamic interpretation of eligibility criteria, and the Court’s view that the interpretation is flawed must be accepted. The point is that it does not enable Member States to meet standards of reliable public fund management. The Commission should review its position at the earliest possible opportunity. Parliament has in fact already approached it on this matter.
Another issue raised by the report is cooperation with the UN. It highlights the UN’s unwillingness or negligence in forwarding the relevant payment documents. The Court indicated three main areas of significant error. They include eligibility of expenses, pre-financing settlement and the payment of incorrect amounts. These errors should and could have been identified and corrected much earlier by the personnel who approved the payments. For this reason, the Commission’s explanation that auditing costs are very high, as indicated by the ratio of the costs to the effectiveness of the audits is unconvincing. It is hard to agree with this point of view. Instead, the Commission should aim for greater efficiency and increase the number of its employees. Indeed, we, as Parliament, approached it on this matter a year ago.
In summary, this section of the information provided by the Court of Auditors is mixed. While recognising its overall correctness, I wish to point to areas of significant error. The report includes the Court’s recommendations, which must largely be accepted."@en1
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