8 Amendments of Rosa D'AMATO related to 2016/2097(INI)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recalls that the high percentage increase (21 % ) in structural and cohesion fund irregularities reported as fraudulent in 2015 is exclusively due to the fact that payments for programming periods before 2007-2013 are almost finalised, but calls on the Member States, the local and regional authorities, and the Commission to enhance their vigilance in this regard;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recalls that Member States have first-line responsibility for managing about 80% of the expenditure budget and for collecting almost all revenue; stresses that, as highlighted by the 2015 Activity Annual Report of DG REGIO, the reason for most interruptions and suspensions of Operational Programmes lies in deficiencies with the organisation of the management and control bodies, with the first-level management verifications, with the audit-trail, and the handling of financial engineering instruments;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Encourages the Commission to further promote the use of the Arachne risk analysis tools in Member States to enhance management verifications;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Calls on Member States to enhance their efforts in the areas highlighted by the Report from the Commission, and namely on: public procurement, financial crime, conflict of interest, corruption, whistle-blowing, definition of fraud;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Stresses that for the period 2008- 2014, of the total of 816 irregularities notified as being suspected fraud by the Member States, only 87 (10%) were established by OLAF as actual fraud; points out that non-fraudulent irregularities are often due to an insufficient knowledge of complex rules and requirements;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recommends that steps be taken to improve the uptake of simplification measures for 2014-2020 with a view to the post-2020 regulatory framework for ESI Funds as a tool to reduce the risk of irregularities caused by errors, always taking into account the need for a proper balance between vigilance tools and simplified procedures;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the need to conduct communication campaigns and take awareness-raising measures to inform citizens of the effectiveness of the anti- fraud measures put in place so as to avoid misconceptions regarding error rates and the number of frauds committed, also taking into account examples of communication best practices in the Member States; in a broader perspective, considers it necessary, in order to make cohesion policy genuinely more credible again, to highlight sufficiently both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ practices, through databases that go beyond providing a scant description of the project and the expenditure incurred, thus enabling citizens to check effectively both the added value and value of most of the projects implemented and, in certain cases, their lack of usefulness in relation to a given local area.
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Is deeply concerned that, as underlined in the 2015 ECA Special Report, failure to comply with public procurement rules has been a perennial and significant source of error in cohesion policy and that serious errors resulted in a lack, or complete absence, of fair competition and/or in the award of contracts to those who were not the best bidders.