Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-335"
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"en.20001004.13.3-335"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mr van Hulten’s report was very broadly endorsed in the Committee on Budgetary Control. No doubt the same will happen during the vote here in plenary. So, my compliments to Mr van Hulten, but may I also ask the Commission to interpret this endorsement correctly. By it we are showing that we continue to support the reforms it has embarked on. We want these reforms. They must lead to greater transparency and efficiency in the handling of the taxpayers’ money and help improve the control systems. We need these reforms so that we can manage substantially to speed up the payments to the legitimate recipients of aid and at long last reduce the number of budgeting errors the Court of Auditors criticises every year.
Setting up an independent – and I emphasise the word independent – audit service is a step in the right direction and responds to Parliament’s requests in its January resolution on the reform of the Commission.
However, we want this audit to complement rather than replace the traditional financial control. That is another thing this House decided in January and confirmed again in the 1998 discharge. Unlike the internal audit, the traditional form of financial control checks budgetary processes even before agreements are signed and payments made. These ex ante controls are essential because, unlike their national colleagues, the Commission officials have wide discretionary powers in many areas of financial decision-making. Independent counter-checks are essential in order to avoid errors. If in future these audits are conducted decentrally and in a targeted manner for risk areas, we will also manage to prevent the controls from being too unwieldy.
It is essential for the financial controllers to remain independent, which means they must not come under the same directors-general they are checking. In short, the controllers must not be under the orders of those whom they are checking! Parliament has repeatedly made that clear too. Unfortunately, we are still waiting in vain for a signal from the Commission in this respect. I would ask the Commission to take the necessary steps together with Parliament! That is in the Commission’s interest too."@en1
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