Shadow Europe Minister, Graham Brady, has called on the European Commission to put its house in order after EU auditors failed to sign off the organisation’s annual accounts – for the twelth year in succession.
Commenting after the auditors drew attention to irregularities in spending as they produced a report on the Commission’s 2005 Budget, Mr Brady said: "It is disgraceful that after twelve years the EU still cannot produce a set of reliable accounts. The European Commission owes it to taxpayers to put its house in order.”
He went on: “It is absurd to put all the blame on national governments when the President of the Court of Auditors made it clear that 'the buck stops with the Commission'. The Commission has a history of trying to shift the blame for its inadequate systems and attacking public servants who have stuck their necks out to expose abuses in the system.”
Mr Brady called on Brussels to apologise to Commission whistleblowers “who have been treated so badly”. He said an apology would make it easier to accept that the EU bureaucrats were taking the subject of irregularities in the accounts seriously.