European Parliament Audit

[Hugh Spencer]

The European Parliament finances are continually unable to be audited because, although Neil Kinnock was entrusted with the task of dicovering where all the millions of euros were being wasted or misused, the ongoing problem still has not been tackled. It is like filling up a bucket with water which has no bottom to it. What are your opinions?

[delboy3]

It's not the Parliament, it's the European Commission in charge of the EU budget. And in any case, it is not their fault that the money they provide to member states is not being fully accounted for; it most likely disappears towards imaginary dairy farms and the like, so any perceived corruption or fraud is happening on the ground, not at EU level. Plus the EU's Court of Auditors are quite strict and if they can't account for every euro spent, they don't sign the accounts.

I understand that the Auditors are now using an 'accruals' based system which works better, but it is in its early stages and needs further tweaking.

[wired]

Yes,I thought Neil Kinnock was like a bottomless bucket, a sideways promotion doesn't always work.

[Zen]

"Further tweaking "

You mean something that is acceptable to the commission ?