TALLINN - Estonia misused European Union support funds 65 times in 2007, more than twice as many times as in 2006, according to Ministry of Finance data.
Although the number rose remarkably in 2007 and the first half of 2008, it may be due to successive increases in the amount of EU support and more efficient monitoring of the funds.
According to Kaur Siruli, director of the Ministry of Finance's financial control department, which collects the data, the monetary amount of the misused funds is less than one percent of all project funding. "So the misuse is not a big problem in Estonia," Siruli said.
He said that the number is small compared to the rest of Europe's statistics. In 2007, the monetary amount of misused funds was around one billion euros, and about 4,000 cases of misuse were discovered. The European Control Chamber estimated that in 2006, 12 percent of funding was spent inappropriately.
"Compared to that 12 percent, our 1 percent is quite small. And with that 1 percent … most of these cases have [been resolved] by today. Either the misuse has ended or the aid money has been demanded back," said Siruli.
The procedures were violated most often with the European Social Fund, and the total monetary amount was more than 38 million kroons. More than 20 million kroons have been reclaimed, settled payments or simply haven't been paid out. 11 cases haven't been solved yet, so the amounts are not final.
In most cases of abuse, people requested funds for projects that in reality weren't done.
"Corruption cases in Estonia don't differ very much from the rest of the Europe. For example, violation of procurement rules is the most common sort of violation," said Siruli.
At the same time Estonia is one of the few countries where information about violations is available to everyone. It is an effective measure to discover violations and fraud.
"In our work there's an important role in informing people, so those who get the aid would understand that this support money doesn't just fall into their lap, [to] be used without any rules," said Siruli.
There are two methods for checking whether money has been misused. First the applications unit, which makes financing decisions and then checks project documentation to make sure that the objects of the investment have not deviated from the original plan.
The second is a more through inspection, when auditors from the Ministry of Finance or from the same applications unit determine whether the money has been properly spent. In cases where an item is bought and misused, the company can either use the item properly or return the money. If the item hasn't been bought at all, the company must return the money.
