Details on audit of funds being sent to Ukraine
Farashah made this acceso a documentos request to Tribunal de Cuentas Europeo
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Dear European Court of Auditors,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
Would you please inform me if there has been any audit of the funds being sent from the EU to Ukraine? There is talk of sending a further 18 billion in funding. The funding is outlined in this report - https://eu-solidarity-ukraine.ec.europa..... I have the following questions:
1. Where do the funds go? Who receives them?
2. Who distributes them inside Ukraine?
3. What mechanisms are in place to ensure transparency and accountability?
4. What checks are in place to ensure the money goes to where it is promised?
5. Are those individuals or organisations named and open to audit?
6. At least 2 billion has been sent for weapons. What was purchased with these funds? Who from? Where are these weapons now? Are they still in Ukraine?
7. Ukraine is known to be a crime-syndicate state run by corrupt officials with a history of laundering money - how can you offer guarantees that EU funds are not being misused or redirected?
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Farashah
Dear requestor,
Thank you for contacting the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
From your message of 12 December 2022, we understand that you are asking
to receive information and relative documents on the “funds being sent
from the EU to Ukraine”.
Your request has been treated according to the rules on public access to
ECA documents, which are set out in [1]Decision No 12/2005 of the Court of
Auditors regarding public access to Court documents (as amended by ECA
Decision No 14/2009, consolidated version published in OJ C 67/1 of
20.03.2009) (altogether, "the Court's Decision"). Please note that
Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents is not applicable to our institution.
As a foreword, we would inform you that our institution is responsible for
auditing the EU’s finances. Pursuant to [2]Article 287 of the Treaty on
the Functioning of the European Union, we examine the legality and
regularity of the EU’s revenue and expenditure and the soundness of its
financial management, and thereby act as the guardians of the EU’s
finances.
Our institution carries out financial and compliance audits. In line with
its methodology and internationally accepted audit standards, the ECA
auditors test, on a random sampling selection basis, transactions from the
different budgetary lines (groups of policy areas) always on an ex-post
basis, and that the outcome of these audits can be found in our reports
available in the [3]ECA publications webpage. Please note that every year,
we examine hundreds of EU-funded projects across the Member States and
third-countries. Moreover, each EU institution has its own robust internal
financial control systems and financial managers in place, including the
European Commission, as the competent authority responsible for the
management of the EU budget.
With regard to the EU funds provided to Ukraine, we would like to inform
you that the ECA audited in the past how previous EU assistance granted to
Ukraine helped to foster reforms and fight corruption. The audit work
resulted in the publication of the [4]Special report 32/2016: EU
assistance to Ukraine and, more recently, of the [5]Special report
23/2021: Reducing grand corruption in Ukraine: several EU initiatives, but
still insufficient results.
However, please note that none of these reports deals with the EU
solidarity assistance granted and to be granted to Ukraine as a
consequence of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war. As the ECA’s
audits are only conducted ex post and this assistance has been granted
recently or is in course to be granted, the ECA did not conduct an audit
on this topic. Therefore, we are in impossibility to reply to your
questions.
In order to obtain more information on the topic of your enquiry, you may
consider contacting the [6]European Commission, and/or the [7]Delegation
of the European Union to Ukraine.
We would also like to inform you that the ECA issued an opinion on a
package of proposals including a new borrowing strategy linked to
financial aid to Ukraine, see [8]Opinion 07/2022 concerning the proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 as regards the establishment of a
diversified funding strategy as a general borrowing method, that could
also be of your interest.
Kind regards
ECA-INFO team
[9]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...
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Information Desk
12, rue Alcide De
Gasperi - L-1615
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Dear ECA-INFO,
Thank you for your reply and I will study the documents provided. Please would you clarify when such an audit will be carried out on the funds being sent to Ukraine? Will the audit cover the details I requested? Will the audit be made publicly available?
Yours sincerely,
Farashah
Dear Farashah,
Thank you for contacting again the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
We would like to inform you that, in line with its methodology and
internationally accepted audit standards, the ECA has the latitude to
decide on the topics and scope of future audits, on the basis of an
assessment of the risks in relation to EU spending and policy delivery,
and also taking into account the financial and economic priorities of the
EU and suggestions made by stakeholders such as the European Parliament
and the Council.
The tasks chosen are then reflected in the ECA’s multiannual and annual
work programme. The multiannual planning is focused around defining and
updating the ECA's [1]strategy, while annual planning exercises determine
the specific priority tasks to be undertaken during the year in question.
The resulting [2]work programme lists the priority audit tasks and
allocates the resources needed for implementing them.
However, there are currently no planned audit tasks regarding the topic
you mention.
Kind regards
ECA-INFO team
[3]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...
[4]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... ECA-INFO
Information Desk
12, rue Alcide
De Gasperi -
L-1615
Luxembourg
[5]eca.europa.eu
[6]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... Please
consider the environment before printing this email
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