BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Trumps1

Listed below are comments made by Trumps1 between Monday, 10th November 2008 and Tuesday, 11th November 2008.

«Newer
Older»

Don't blame the ref? 08:02am on 11 Nov 2008 Are the EU programmes designed to be an efficient and effective use of money? Now that is a very different question.

But remember
a) the nature and size of the programmes is decided by the Member States not the EC (remember Blair and chirac fighting over the budget). They are just implemented and coordinated by the EC and
b) is it any more inefficient and ineffective than the use of money by National Governments? I doubt it - think of the dome, think of the huge waste in aborted IT programmes etc. Although the fact that there is less accountability at European level (and the difficult of making and changing decisions at that level) probably does risk that ineffeciency and ineffectiveness is allowed to continue longer at that level.

Are there frauds by people claiming on the EU programmes? - for sure. But is it more than e.g. the frauds in social security claimants on National Governments?- I very much doubt it pro rata - and if the national Audit office made an announcement about that every year then we would have the same story there every year.

It might be true that the nature of EU programmes is to give relatively large grants (probably larger than classical national programmes) and so it is possible that a few individual people and organisations do get away with some larger sums of money. But dont forget that the reason the stories are in the paper is because they are caught - which is at least evidence of some controls (and the Court provides an indication of the total remaining of all kinds of errors, not just of frauds)

I am not saying there is nothing wrong with the managmeent of EU money - and I do agree with the point about lack of protectin of whistleblowers - I am only saying it should be put in some proportion.
Don't blame the ref? 10:32pm on 10 Nov 2008 Oh dear. They made such an effort to explain things this year and still noone understands.

Yes the accounts are signed off as an accurate record of simply how much money has came in and how money went out. The auditors have always signed off the accounts as an accurate record like that- no change there except that now they are doing it on an 'accruals' bsais (taking account of money spent but prepaid and of liabilities incurred but not yet paid).

(I know it is primitive that the EC has only just started to account on an accruals basis when the private sector has been doing it for a hundred years - but National Governments have also always had difficulty understanding anything other than cash in and cash out.)

However, the question remains as always whether the EC's money has gone out to people who were properly entitled to it - whether the payments are 'legal and regular'. It is here that the issue remains contentious and here that the Court has only inched slightly forward in its recognition that the EC is making a little bit of progress - but the Court still thinks there is a 'material' amount of ineligible payments.

But then you have to understand 'ineligible' does not mean 'fraud' - and you have to understand that 'material' does not mean more than a few % anyway. Effectively the Court is saying that more than 90% of the money does go to people who are entitled to it - and those who are not entiteld to it may not be entitled to it only for relatively technical errors in their claims.

And then you hvae to understnad that the whole concept of the CAP and the Structural Funds were set up by the member states in order that they would be implemented by the member states directly with their own publics. And the commission is left running round trying to tell the member states how they ought to be managing the payments.

And finally the EC is tired of being the punchbag and is trying to make sweeping claims back from member states who show 'system weaknesses' (which may or may not reflect real irregularities underneath).

All very technical and boring I know - but I have still not seen a journalist get the right balance on all this.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Trumps1