The European Commission has been taken to task by the European Court of Auditors and members of the European Parliament for failing to follow proper procedures in its development spending.
An ECA audit for the 2021 financial year found that expenditure under the European Development Funds — managed by the commission and paid into by European Union states — had an estimated error rate of 4.6%, up from 3.8% in 2020 and 3.5% in 2019.
The types of mistakes identified in the sample of 140 transactions included ineligible expenditure, 39% of errors; absence of essential supporting documents, 23%; expenditure not incurred, 15%; and serious failure to respect public procurement rules, 15%.