Brussels, 09/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - European Regional Development Commissioner Corina Cretu told the European Parliament's budgetary control committee on Monday 8 December that she is planning to clamp down on errors in the management of the Structural and Investment Funds.
She was commenting on the outcome of an audit by the European Court of Auditors for the year 2013 which revealed an error rate of nearly 7% in the management of the Structural Funds, a rate she described as above an acceptable level. She is planning to work closely with the member states to eliminate the sources of the errors. The Commission uses a network of 43 auditing agencies to control 90% of the Structural Funds, but says that intermediate bodies and management authorities also need to improve their inspection capacities. The Commissioner said that action was taken by the European Commission directly as soon as any risk or irregularity was flagged up. This is important to protect the EU's budget, explained Cretu, adding that payments were automatically interrupted or suspended as soon as problems are identified, and there would be zero tolerance for corruption or fraud in the Structural Funds. (MD)