Gay Mitchell
Question:71 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance his views on the concerns expressed by the EU Court of Auditors in their most recent report on EU spending and controls. [22494/97]
Written Answers. - EU Spending Controls.
The annual report by the European Court of Auditors on the EU budget for the financial year 1996 was published on 18 November 1997. The Court of Auditors, in its Statement of Assurance, was unable to give an affirmative statement regarding the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying payments. Based on a sample of transactions, projection of the results of its sample gave an error rate of 5.4 per cent of all payments effected in 1996. This figure is lower than the corresponding figure for 1995. It would be wrong to assume that all of these errors in payments involve fraud, many refer to irregularities of one kind or another. This fact has been acknowledged by the President of the Court of Auditors, who also referred to the process being made by both the Commission and member states as part of the ongoing initiative — SEM 2000 — to improve the management of EU funds.
Nevertheless, the Government, in common with other member states and the European Commission, is concerned about the existence of fraud or irregularity in EU funding. Indeed, article 209a of the Treaty on European Union obliges member states to take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Community as they take to protect their own financial interests. The Government is fully committed to combating the misuse of Community resources.