The Court of Auditors criticizes European action in Central Asia

(BRUSSELS2) A special report by the European Court of Auditors, entitled “ European Union development aid for Central Asia, published on Tuesday (21 January), pinpoints the action of the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) during the period 2007-2012. He focuses on the planning and management of development assistance programs in the five Central Asian republics. This includes in particular the aid committed for prison reform in Kyrgyzstan (€3), for penal judicial reforms in Uzbekistan (€000) as well as for border management (€10) and the action plan against -drugs in Central Asia (€000).

The Commission singled out

If the audit recognizes the "considerable effort" deployed by institutions “in difficult circumstances”, he also highlights the slowness of their implementation, “ with differences depending on the country ". The Commission is directly singled out, because it allegedly "  could and should have been more rigorous in the management of its budget support programs in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and made this support conditional on the adoption of specific anti-corruption measures says the report.

Recommendations: truly regional programs, concentrating aid

To improve the speed of implementation, the European Court of Auditors makes several recommendations to the Commission and the EEAS, in particular:

• She recommends " confer » to future regional programs, "a real regional dimension". Because part of these programs today consists of “multinational programs accessible to each partner country separately” she points out.

• Given the " too many sectors” and " the multitude of small projects “, which have “increased the administrative burden for the delegations”, the Court advises to  “focus all aid provided on a small number of sectors”.

• It is better to rely on "the progress made" by countries only on their commitments ”recalls the Court, which recommends “to define and apply strict and objectively verifiable conditions to establish other budget support programmes. It underlines, for example, the problems of access to “prison and court cases” international experts working on criminal justice reform in Uzbekistan, in the absence of a "full support" authorities.

The report is available for download here!