Most payments can be traced to the final user, but member states are not required to share actual amounts spent on individual measures.<\/p>\n
Some countries, including Austria, Estonia, France and Spain, have created online dashboards or maps showing funded projects.<\/p>\n
But even there, information on final beneficiaries or investment results is lacking, according to the auditors.<\/p>\n
Another problem identified by the auditors is the fact that member states are only required to publish the 100 largest recipients of pandemic-era funding.<\/p>\n
In practice, these are usually public bodies such as ministries, municipalities, or state-owned companies such as railways, which account for more than half of the listed recipients and around 80 percent of reported amounts.<\/p>\n
Those public bodies then pass funds on to thousands of private companies, NGOs, banks, and investment funds.<\/p>\n
But these fall outside of the list. And because the EU Commission is not obligated to collect this data itself, even in cases where member states have it, the information is hard to access.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need information on all the recipients. Not only we, but citizens, journalists, everybody who would like to see how money is spent,\u201d said Maleti\u0107.<\/p>\n
The commission however, in a written response shared with EUobserver, said it \u201ccould not endorse\u201d the ECA\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n
When asked whether it would push member states to provide more information on recipients beyond the top 100, commission spokesperson Maciej Berestecki said it had \u201cissued guidance\u201d to help member states collect the data and held \u201cdedicated meetings\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn relation to data on actual costs, there is no legal basis for the Commission to request or analyse such national data,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Hard-baked<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of the transparency problems identified by the auditors are hard-baked into the fund\u2019s design.<\/p>\n Covid-era financing was put together in haste to help governments kickstart the economy, which had largely come to a halt.<\/p>\n Unlike traditional EU funding mechanisms, which typically reimburse incurred costs, the RRF disbursed money based on performance. <\/p>\n
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