Speech
by the Hon. Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of
Finance, AT the seminar on risk analysis in agricultural, structural and
cohesion funds organised by the european anti fraud office (OLAF) AND
THE INTERNAL AUDIT DIRECTORATE – VALLETTA - 29th October
2004
Director
General,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Although
at the final stages of this seminar, I would like to take the
opportunity to give a warm welcome to our foreign guests, and hope you
have enjoyed your short stay on the island.
As
I have been informed, this time last year, a good number of this
year’s participants were also present for the Anti Fraud
Co-coordinators (AFCOS) meeting held last year, were a strategic
approach to the fight against fraud was mapped.Malta was then in its final stages leading to accession.
The
protection of the European Unions financial interests, particularly the
funding arising under the Agricultural, Structural and Cohesion Funds is
fundamentally linked to the attainment of the objectives set for these
allocations.
The
concept of “Solidarity” cannot be effectively implemented throughout
all the member states, applicant countries and other third countries
unless we have the appropriate systems and effective controls in place
to ensure that irregularity and fraud are detected and addressed.
This
is our stewardship obligation both as politicians and officials within
Governments and Community institutions, we who have been entrusted to
utilise in the most effective manner the European taxpayers’ money.The appropriate and effective management of European and Public
funds could, in the medium to long-term contributes to a betterment of
our citizens’ standard of living and possibly lessen the tax burden on
the EU citizen.
As
a new Member States Malta is fully committed towards such goals and has
in the process leading towards membership not only built the necessary
structures and human resource capacity to achieve the competencies
necessary in this field.We
are also committed towards promoting a strong approach to combat
irregularities and fraud, supporting new initiatives for the betterment
of mutual exchange of information between the Commission and the EU
member states.
Malta views that the current proposals to amend
Council Regulations 1073/99 and 1074/99 with both interest and some
reservations.We need to
ensure that OLAF is not tied down with too many bureaucratic procedures;
on the other hand the concept of devolution to the Member States of
certain duties presently within the competence of OLAF may be explored.We are also generally in agreement with the proposed Council
regulation to extend mutual assistance and information exchange to VAT.
We
also view with interest the developments relating to enhancement of the
role of the AFCOS agency in member states, as well as the applicant
countries.In our view,
AFCOS can be more then a “Co-coordinating” service.We need to ensure that our structures, while not duplicating
roles and responsibilities, facilitate a fast response to combat and
prevent any fraud or irregularity in matters dealing with community
funds management and also guarantee protection of the very national
interests of each and every member state.
As
new member states we have all run a long race towards accession, we have
rapidly built numerous structures and built human resource capacity in a
number of areas. We must now consolidate what we have achieved so far to
ensure that the benefits of what we have sowed are reaped. These targets
can be only reached by unhindered cooperation and exchange of
information.The success of
the next steps fully depends upon the commitment of each and every one
of us, the politicians on the one hand and the technocrats and experts
on the other to achieve a common desirable goal.
Finally,
I want to thank Dr Bruener for his efforts to rationalize efforts in the
protection of the EU’s financial interests, by presenting him with a
memento of this event.
