Brussels, 15/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Auditors has highlighted the lack of action by member states to reduce the number of problems affecting public procurement in the area of cohesion policy, in its report published on Tuesday 15 September.
The report, Efforts to address problems with public procurement in EU cohesion expenditure should be intensified, is critical of the widespread errors detected in public procurement procedures. Of almost 700 projects co-financed by the European rural development fund (ERDF), the cohesion fund (CF) or the European social fund (ESF) between 2009 and 2013, 40% were found by the Court of Auditors to have public procurement errors. In total 590 errors were detected, 22% of which were minor, 49% significant and 29% serious.
Slightly more than two thirds of the serious errors (70%) were detected with the ERDF. “This is, in part, because ERDF and CF programmes generally involve larger infrastructure projects in which contracts are often subject to public tendering procedures”, says the report. A large number of serious errors occur in the specification and application of selection/award criteria.
In examining the origin of the errors, the Court highlights the complexity of the legal framework surrounding the award of public contracts and administrative procedures. This is a situation that the European Commission would seem to wish to address, with its creation of a simplification group (see EUROPE 11356). Attention is also drawn in the report to the lack of administrative capacity and the lack of expertise in some member states: a problem that affects both the contracting authorities and those responsible for supervision.
The Court also notes that European directives are not always correctly transposed by the member states, which have a tendency to complicate matters by adding rules. Cases of fraud remain relatively rare (2% of irregularities affecting public procurement) but Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu has made tackling fraud one of her priorities (see EUROPE 11331). The lack of available information makes it impossible to conduct an exhaustive analysis among the member states, even though the member states have made efforts in this direction.
On the basis of its findings, the Court recommends: - that the Commission systematically gather coherent data on irregularities in the area of cohesion policy and that national authorities develop their own databases; - that payments to member states which do not implement the necessary corrective measures be suspended; - that the Commission improve coordination between its departments that deal with public procurement issues; - that a high-level group be set up specifically to provide leadership in tackling public procurement errors; - that e-procurement should be further exploited by the Commission and the member states. (Pascal Hansens)