Brussels, 15/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a report just made public, the European Court of Auditors points the finger at a "large number of inadequacies" in the Commission's management of EU external assistance programmes, but issues a favourable judgement on the latest reforms undertaken.
Shortcomings are emphasised on the three aspects of external aid broached by the report: planning, project preparation, and the role of the Commission's delegations.
Planning by country, first of all, is much "too centralised" for the countries of Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean Basin. "The documents were mainly drawn up in Brussels, the delegations and authorities of the beneficiary countries only intervening in a modest manner. This procedure is ineffective, in the sense that it does not allow for the knowledge of the delegations to be used to the utmost", says the report. Judgement is more positive regarding programmes in ACP countries, as "the delegations participate every actively in he planning process". One problem is pointed out in all programmes per country, "the lack of performance indicators", which prevents sound assessment of the results.
The Court also raises problems concerning preparing and assessing projects, criticising the lack of preparation and assessment of projects. The adoption of the management method by cycle of projects has nevertheless "allowed for the quality of the work on the preparation of projects to be somewhat improved".
Finally, the Court welcomes the fact that "the role of the Commission's delegations has been considerably increased these past few years (political, economic, cultural role), but it criticises the fact that their participation in the development and follow-up of projects "has consequently been reduced". It calls on the Commission to further involve delegations in projects, and especially, to "define their role and responsibilities in a precise manner".
The Court does however, find satisfaction with the Commission in that it considers that the new organisation (EuropAid) set up should allow it to tackle these problems - as long, however, as the "new management culture is characterised by greater flexibility and an approach further focused on results". Indeed, according to the Court, "a large number of inadequacies (…) may be attributable to the Commission's organisational structure, its procedures and use of human resources" and to the "compartmentalization of the cycle of projects resulting from the setting up of the Common Relex Service (CRS) that worsens the problem". The European Commission, moreover, welcomed the report's conclusions, criticisms included, declaring that the reforms it was undertaking were aimed precisely at correcting the problems raised by the Court.