16 November 2001
But the auditors once again withheld full approval of the EU accounts, as has been the pattern in recent years.
'The audit of operational expenditure revealed an unacceptable incidence of error affecting the amount of payments or the reality or the eligibility of the underlying transactions,' the auditors said.
'The transactions underlying the financial statements, taken as a whole, are legal and regular in respect of revenue, commitments and administrative expenditure, but [the Court] declines to provide this assurance in respect of the other payments.'
The auditors drew particular attention to 'the emergence of a very large surplus of revenue over expenditure' amounting to e11.6bn (£7.08bn), caused by a higher revenue yield than budgeted and lower payments from structural funds.
PFnov2001
