More on the scandal of the European Union Accounts Fraud and Incompetence

I got this email from a list. This level of incompetence and fraud is shocking, and to think that they are doing this with our money. Bleah.

 

Subject: Re: EU audit

Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 10:46:10 +0100

Perhaps I can clarify things a little...

The only part of the EU's spending which is audited and signed off

is the part handled directly by the Commission, and that includes

the cost of the European Parliament. It accounts for less than 10%

of the total.

All the rest comes under what is absurdly known as "shared

management", on which I have waxed lyrical more than once in years

past. Effectively, the EU decides to give money for a project in a

member state or in a candidate country and then expects that

country's government to account for it properly, having added an

agreed percentage to the total cost of whatever is being

funded. (Example, Greece, whose application for subsidies for its

olive groves covers such a large land mass that it can only mean

that olives are grown in the middle of Athens and in the Aegean

Sea. Everybody in Brussels knows it is a scam and they have never

done anything to stop it.)

The Court of Auditors, another poodle of the EU and made up of

appointees from the member states (many of whom are not qualified

accountants, by the way), then supposedly checks on the information

provided, sends staff to a handful of locations to verify the

"facts", and then decides there are too many errors and

unsubstantiated sets of accounts for them to sign off the whole lot.

Added to which, when the EU switched from single-entry book-keeping

to double-entry in 2005 they were unable to agree the closing

balances on the existing accounts, which meant that there were no

opening balances under the new system!

So, in reality, they can NEVER sign off the accounts because they

never knew where they were starting from.

Hope that helps

Ashley Mote

(MEP 2004-2009, and member of the EP's Budget Control Committee

throughout that time)

PS: Double-entry book-keeping was the invention of an Italian monk

some 1500 years ago. Quite why it took the EU until 2005 to catch

up has never been explained.

Much ado about nothing

As you might have heard, the ECHR has ruled against the use of crucifix in classrooms. But the Italians are not taking it well, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saying that it will ignore the ruling. The Italians, with 84% majority, want crucifixes to remain on the classroom walls. And now the anti immigrant party, Northern League, is getting into the act as well.

A similar thing happened in Spain as well way back in 1982 but nothing has been done to implement the order still yet.

Basically, I cannot see how you can avoid it. Just like abortion has become legal, for a liberal democracy to take positions for a particular religion will not be justifiable at all. This promises to produce quite a lot of hot air. Mind you, God is everywhere, but apparently the crucifix is a symbol and weaker minds like to see it. Welcome to Europe. Here’s the amusing bit about the survey as reported by Reuters. I quote:

Those in favour included many who are not practicing Catholics. Some 68 percent of those who said they never attended Mass said they still wanted the crucifixes to stay in schools.

heh. So what’s the reason? cultural reasons? So now its become a decoration?

No signoff on the EU accounts yet again

So this year again, the Netherlands government is refusing to sign off on the EU Accounts. I quote:

Finance Minister Wouter Bos has announced the Netherlands will vote against the annual financial statement of the European Union for 2007. He made his statement after a meeting of European finance ministers.
For the 14th time, the EU accounting office reports that many billions of euros in expenses have not been properly accounted for. Mr Bos says that the Dutch parliament would never accept such a statement from a finance minister, and that the Netherlands will therefore vote against.
The Netherlands is once again the only country to reject the EU financial statement. Mr Bos says an increasing number of countries agree with the Netherlands, but fear being punished financially should they vote against the statement.

I have complained about this before. But nothing happens. The European Union, in its estimable undemocratic way, keeps on going ahead, spraying my tax dollars on weird and wonderful initiatives, with no proper accounting for the funds. The Netherlands seems to be the only country which has a set of proper balls for proper accounting and treatment of their funds.

Now I wonder why the British Government does not follow suit? Oh! sorry, I forgot that the British Politicians are equally venal as the EU bureaucrats, and would prefer to keep their expenses secret. Welcome to the land of corruption. And dont tell me that we are cleaner than Nigeria or Bangladesh. We are NOT a third world country, we live in a trust society and in return for my tax dollars, you are to be open and transparent in your spending which you are doing on MY behalf. If you are incompetent, then you need to be fired and if corrupt, exposed. Is there anybody else besides the Dutch who would be brave enough to hold these EU incompetent gits to account?

Technorati Tags: Europe,European Commission,Corruption

Quote of the day:
Many would be cowards if they had courage enough. - Thomas Fuller

Justice, Saudi Style

Check out this blogpost on how the Saudi Judges are reacting on the Saudi Qatif Raped Girl case which is roiling the world. This is Sharia, I presume? And I presume they would know what it is since its the birthplace of Islam, the custodian of the holy mosques sits there and they are propagating exactly this Sharia and its knowledge across the world.

We know quite a lot of Saudi funded mosques are in various countries of the world. We also know that many countries are demanding Sharia to be used for personal law. Now, I wonder if this means that this kind of Saudi Justice could be seen in places ranging from UK to India to Canad? I dont know, but who knows? How will this square with the European Court of Justice?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

A blow FOR European Minority Shareholders

Now this is indeed a good step, the European Court of Justice has overturned a law which protected Volkswagen from hostile takeovers. While this is not going to make an immediate difference, but this is still an important step in the annals of European Corporate Governance.

This idea of national champions is frankly silly. If its not car making in Germany, its bloody yogurt manufacturing in France.

Minority shareholders are massively overlooked and I do think that the 1 share 1 vote principle should be pushed a bit more.

Technorati Tags: Corporate Governance , EU , European Court of Justice , Germany , France