EU accounts are legitimate

IN HER letter published May 19, Ms Patricia Davies writes that the EU is “an organisation whose books haven’t been audited for 17 years due to fraud”. This is simply not correct. Whilst some media continue to perpetuate this myth, the Court of Auditors has in fact signed off the EU accounts every year since 2007. There is often confusion between signing off the accounts meaning being given a clean bill of health – and the error rate, established at 4.4% of EU expenditure last year, which is the money not used fully in accordance with rules and procedures. Errors are not fraud: expenditure on ineligible items is subject to recovery; a bridge not built in full accordance with procurement rules, for example, is still built. It should also be recalled that around 80% of EU budget is managed by member states, not EU institutions.