Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-11-Speech-2-051"
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"en.20000411.3.2-051"2
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"Mr President, the 1998 discharge procedure illustrates once again that the European Union’s bad image is not totally unfounded but is actually based on facts. In its 1998 annual report, the Court of Auditors mentioned an unacceptably high error rate and felt compelled, would you believe, to issue a negative Statement of Assurance. As long as the Commission does not commit itself to drastically reducing that error rate from the beginning of next year, we cannot grant discharge to the Commission. The Stauner report deserves every support on this score.
We in Parliament set high standards for the Commission, but do we set them for ourselves too? We are right in insisting that the Commission base its budget on accurate estimates, but how accurate are the estimates for our own budget? Year in year out, many EP budget lines show up enormous surpluses which are subsequently used to purchase buildings by means of a collective transfer. I cannot help thinking that many administrative expenses are intentionally estimated on the generous side in order to have the extra funding for buildings in reserve. These shady tricks must stop at once.
We also need to search our own hearts regarding public tenders. It is unacceptable that the number of privately awarded contracts in 1998 increased to half of all contracts. Why such a steep rise? The Secretary-General has mentioned a few procedural reasons, but is this the full story? A clarification regarding this drastic rise is urgently required.
Rapporteur Kuhne also puts his finger on the problems regarding the financing of the Spinelli building. This is the umpteenth affair involving new buildings. Is it not about time we commissioned an independent inquiry into the decision-making process for building projects?
We can no longer afford to cover the above issues with the cloak of charity. We need to exert parliamentary pressure to bring about the necessary reforms. We will therefore support the amendments to postpone discharge until such time as the Secretary-General has produced concrete plans."@en1
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