POLITICS-EU: NGOs Question EU Commissioner’s Commitment to Civil Society

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Brian Kenety

BRUSSELS, Dec 19 2000 (IPS) - The largest network of European non- governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the field of development co- operation and humanitarian emergency aid has characterised an audit process of the network launched by the European Commission as “harassment”.

The Liaison Committee of Development NGOs to the European Union (EU), known widely by its French acronym, CLONG, has also called into question the larger issue of the top EU development official’s personal commitment to fostering civil society. The Commission maintains the only issue at hand is “financial probity”.

The Commission, the executive arm of the EU will receive this week the final draft report of an external audit into the financial management and accounting practices of the secretariat of CLONG, in part how the umbrella group distributed funds to the 15 national platforms.

Although there is no suggestion that fraud has been committed, the Commission says that the audit, which has been going on through 2000, is likely to “confirm financial mismanagement” that may result in the need to recover approximately 1 million euros (890,000 US dollars) of funds it has allocated the network in recent years.

The Commission, which provides over 80 percent of the CLONG budget, may also stop current payments, a move that the 25-year-old network said would mean, that it “will cease to exist in a few weeks time”.

CLONG sees no justification for the audit, which spans the last five years, and questions payments allocated to the general budgets to some of the member organisations or national platforms of the network.

“We have been subject to a very real harassment for months,” CLONG president Joachim Lindau told a press conference here Tuesday.

“There has been little or no constructive dialogue throughout the process,” he said, adding that the network had already had to make staff redundant because it could not count on future funding from the Commission, or that it would disburse funds for ongoing projects.

“We have discussed the issue with the ombudsman [of the European Parliament] and intend to introduce a formal complaint about the way the Commission has handled the process so far,” said Lindau.

Acknowledging that there may have been some “incomplete bookkeeping”, CLONG nonetheless maintains that all the EU funds handled by the network’s Brussels-based secretariat examined by the audit, amounting to over 10 million euros, “have been properly spent on the purpose for which they were intended and according to Commission rules in force at the time”.

The network says that in the past, Commission officials recognised that CLONG had made a good faith effort to meet the EU rules and regulations for funding NGOs, which it says can often be extremely complex and open to interpretation. Furthermore, CLONG said it was now being held accountable under a different set of rules than were in place during the period under audit.

CLONG has pointed an accusing finger directly at Poul Nielson, the current EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, implying that the audit was part of an effort to consolidate power within the Commission.

“Danish Commissioner Nielson endangers the European network of development NGOs,” said CLONG’s Dec. 15 invitation to a Dec. 19 press conference at which network representatives would discus the impact of the auditing process.

“The Commission’s increasingly negative attitude to the Liaison Committee (a two-stage audit lasting for the whole of 2000, the current freezing of payments on contracts which have already been signed, complete uncertainty about the immediate and long-term future) is weakening and destabilising a structure which lets NGOs have an influence on the development and humanitarian aid policies of the EU,” said the invitation.

“Does Commissioner Nielson think that NGOs have too much power and too much of a role in his sector? Is there a link with the steady dismantling of the Commission’s [Directorate for] Development, which from 1 January 2001 will have less than 300 officials?” it continued.

In June, the EU and the 77 members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group signed a new ‘trade and aid’ partnership agreement in Cotonou, Benin that formally seeks to involve civil society actors in EU- ACP policy making and relations.

“It is astonishing that at the same time the largest network of European NGOs is suffering systematic bureaucratic harassment,” said the CLONG invitation. By way of explanation, Lindau told journalists Tuesday that Nielson had expressed open “disdain for NGOs” in his public speeches.

For its part, the Commission said that the network’s invitation made an “amalgam” between issues linked to the audit and the broader relationship between the two.

Commissioner Nielson replied in a statement dated Dec. 18: “Let me be clear that regarding this specific case, the only issue at stake here is money management and administration. It is the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that tax payers’ money is used according to the rules. These difficulties do not affect my respect for the work of development NGOs as a whole, but rather, the CLONG administration – exactly like any other beneficiary – has to apply principles of sound financial management.”

Nielson said he remained committed to having a strong and honest relationship with NGOs and their networks in the development and humanitarian fields.

“However, this relationship has to be founded on trust, financial probity and the protection of the EU’s financial interests. Having a solid financial basis is key to securing and keeping public support for the valuable work of the NGO community. It is in both our interests and theirs. I hope that this matter can be solved in a rapid and satisfactory manner.”

Nielson and CLONG representatives are due to meet this week following the release of the final draft report of the external audit, carried out by the international accounting firm Ernst & Young.

James Mackie, the CLONG secretary-general, said that whilst he respected Nielson’s call for financial probity, “what I don’t accept is that he not measure that with some degree of understanding and political commitment to keeping civil society organisations going”.

In calling for dialogue, he added: “I would understand that he would stop payment and close it down if there were any indication of fraud at all. But there is none”.

CLONG was created in 1975 and the Commission has always been its major source of funding as it was considered vital to establish a European-wide network of development NGOs.

“The climate has changed and we are applying the rules. But we are not inventing ‘new’ rules to complicate their lives. For us, it is a technical and administrative exercise. There is no hidden agenda and we are not out to get them,” Commissioner Nielson’s spokesman, Michael Curtis, told IPS.

“We are trying to be constructive and find a way of addressing the issues. We are looking for a way to keep it running and Commissioner Nielson does value the work of CLONG – not just CLONG, but the work of all NGOs. But he also values the importance of using taxpayers’ money in a transparent, justified manner,” he said.

“We are not going to be pernickety and bureaucratic about this, but there are clear rules that must be respected. It is a million euros – it is not like a boarding pass here or there,” said Curtis, stressing that Nielson would be addressing the situation in a professional and not a personal manner.