Auditors unhappy with Framework checks

The European Commission should beef up its advance checks of Framework Programme spending, the European Court of Auditors has said.

In its report on the Commission’s 2010 accounts, the Luxembourg-based Court of Auditors says the Commission’s ex-ante controls over research spending, undertaken in advance of spending, are only “partially effective”. In particular, the Commission’s simplified desk checks are not sufficient to spot potential high-risk payments ahead of time, the Court writes. The report urges the Commission to use auditing methods developed by the directorate general for information society as a model to improve its controls.