Europese Rekenkamer: Tacis-projecten in Russische Federatie weinig effectief (en)

ECA/06/5

Luxembourg, 20 April 2006

Information note by the European Court of Auditors on Special Report No 2/2006 on the Performance of Projects Financed under TACIS in the Russian Federation[1]

From 1991 to 2006 over 7 000 million euro were allocated by the European Union for the TACIS (Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States) programme. The Russian Federation is the largest beneficiary of this programme, having received annually about 200 million euro, or 40 % of all funding under the programme.

The objective of the Court's audit was to assess whether the TACIS projects managed by the Commission in the Russian Federation had been effective, i.e. whether they had achieved their objectives and created a lasting impact (sustainability). The Court examined a random sample of 29 contracts (projects) implemented mainly in 2002 and 2003, i.e. the most recent projects for which the sustainability could be assessed. The total value of the contracts audited was 56 million euro which is more than half of total expenditure on relevant projects.

Overall the Court concluded that nine of the audited projects (29) achieved their objectives. In eight cases the objectives were partially met and in twelve cases they were not achieved. The results of only five of the audited projects were sustainable. The above audit conclusions show that the effectiveness of the use of TACIS funds in the Russian Federation has been very low. Thus the Court cannot assess the performance of TACIS projects in the Russian Federation positively. On the other hand, the audit revealed that the performance of contractors and monitors met the requirements of their contracts.

The Court observed that the Commission has exhaustive programming (planning) systems for external actions. However, the programming process did not facilitate a real dialogue between the Commission and the Russian authorities. As a consequence, in some cases the beneficiaries accepted assistance which they actually did not want.

Other observations were that in some cases (i) the projects' objectives were imprecise and not measurable, (ii) the assumptions underlying the planning were unrealistic, (iii) the selection and involvement of beneficiaries was not successful, (iv) the determination of the project size caused problems when individual projects with loose connection were incorporated into one set of Terms of Reference, (v) the steering committees did not work well, (vi) there were major delays in implementation, (vii) equipment was not used for the purposes of the projects and (viii) ex-post assessments (evaluations) of the impacts of the projects were not carried out. However, the devolution of project identification and management to the Delegation enabled more effective project management.

The Court recommends that the Commission should (i) base all planning of its external action programmes on a real dialogue with the recipients, (ii) finance only such projects which have clear and mutually shared objectives, (iii) realistically appraise the potential for sustainability during the planning phase of projects, (iv) ensure the ex-post assessment, or evaluation, of the completed projects and (v) provide information to the public on the projects and their results for dissemination purposes.

During the audit, the Court co-operated with the Russian Supreme Audit Institution, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation in the question of methodology. The Russian auditors conducted parallel audits on the use of TACIS funds, examining the performance of the Russian authorities. The Accounts Chamber's report was published in February 2006. The Court intends to publish a common communiqué with the Russian SAI on the parallel audits in the near future. The main aim of the communiqué will be to present the broader picture of TACIS funds performance in the Russian Federation.

Special Report No 2/2006:

http://www.eca.eu.int/audit_reports/special_reports/docs/2006/rs02_06en.pdf

[1] The sole purpose of this Information Note is to provide a summary. The Special Report, as adopted by the Court of  Auditors, is available on the Court's website http://www.eca.eu.int and will shortly be published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union.