Complete and Utter Zebu

For the 15th year in a row, the European Court of Auditors have felt unable to sign off the accounts of the EU. This is apparently largely down to serious errors in regional and rural development aid, which accounts for over a third of the Community’s budget.

In a break with tradition, Spain, Italy and Portugal have been singled out as largely to blame for the problems. In the “cohesion” arena, covering overseas aid and payments, the auditors found that 11% of payments should not have been made.

Vitor Caldeira, the head auditor, pleaded for EU regulations to be simplified. “In many situations the errors are a consequence of too complex rules and regulations.” He also warned that advance payments of 11 billion Euros made last year to help combat the recession should be carefully monitored as they could “increase the risk of funds being misused, unless control systems are strengthened”.

Given the massive fuss over the behaviour of our own MPs, it is hard to understand why there isn’t a bigger brouhaha over EU incompetence and mismanagement, budget and expense-milking, fraud and corruption. The enormous amounts involved would buy more than just a few bath plugs, porn films or duck houses. This is real cash that’s being lost, not Monopoly money.

In the private sector, heads would roll if the auditors couldn’t sign off just one year’s accounts. 15 years in a row is utterly unthinkable. Sadly, in the European Union’s topsy-turvy world, it’s business as usual.

Click here for more Complete and Utter Zebu