TALLINN, 10 May 2004 - The State Audit Office analysed the methods of evaluation of the results and effectiveness of the PHARE projects, and the sustainability of the projects themselves. The audit revealed that in the initial years the objectives of the projects were not clearly sated and their results were pretty uneven. The evaluation of the sustainability and effectiveness of the projects have not proved the actual expediency of the use of the funds.
Märt Kivine, Chief Auditor of the Performance Audit Department notes that the SAO, while analysing the PHARE projects of 1996 to 2003 aimed at economic development, drew the conclusion that both the direct and long-term objectives of the projects were not formulated with sufficient clarity: “The vague formulation of the objectives prevents us from evaluating the effectiveness that the projects were meant to attain. That is why it is difficult to analyse the level of expediency of the use of the financial aid. The audit revealed that while the direct objectives of the projects were attained, the strengthening and further development of the results were not properly dealt with. For instance, the island of Kihnu was supplied with a detailed plan and a building design. The documents were prepared in order to carry out a tender to hire a building company but no building has yet carried out on the island.”
In the course of the audit the projects that received financial aid from the PHARE program, i.e. the implementation of the funds prior to Estonia’s accession to the EU were inspected. The quality of formulation and evaluation of the projects did improve from year to year during the period of inspection. According to Märt Kivine, the audit should point to the avoidable difficulties in the use of the funds after Estonia accedes to the EU.
According to the Structural Funds Act, the allocation of financial aid is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. The planning and development of the projects aimed at economic development are the tasks of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The SAO has recommended to the Ministers, while establishing the procedures for the evaluation of applications, to consider the issues of the wording of the objectives as well as the sustainability of the projects. In order to get a satisfactory overview of the effectiveness of the use of the funds in the future, the SAO recommended that the procedure for ex post evaluation of the projects should be developed in order to determine the principles of evaluation and the persons responsible for it. It was also recommended that the principles of collecting data on the effectiveness of the projects be determined in order that the persons executing the ex post evaluations had enough dependable information.
Sven Soiver
Press Representative of State Audit Office
Telephone: (372) 640 0787
GSM: (372) 53 414464
E-mail: [email protected]
-
Posted:
5/10/2004 12:00 AM
-
Last Update:
10/1/2015 11:31 AM
-
Last Review:
10/1/2015 11:31 AM