Out With the Old

The Bean counters in Brussels are to get a new toy in the new year.

The European Commission is making final preparations to launch a new accounting system on January 1 to keep better tabs on the way European Union funds are spent and to crack down on fraud.

Better late than never I suppose, but ten years of non audited accounts is a lot by anyone’s standards. Under the old system, controlling whether work was actually done was very hit and miss.

Money paid out as an advance was listed as a cash payment - instead of as an asset - and it was up to an individual case officer to recover the money if the work was not completed.

Make a cash advance to a friend and forget about it. Nice work if you can get it. Whilst I always welcome any moves to improve the management of our cash, the fraud is of course nothing compared to the money legitimately paid out to Europe’s farmers. I’ll hold my party the day they get rid of that.