Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

I believe that a constructive dialogue improves the quality of the recommendation, but also the willingness of the auditee to rapidly implement them. My audit experience and discussions with the auditee suggest there is a need for the ECA’s recommendations to be sometimes less burdensome and more focused on results.

8. The aim of the ECA’s reform is to establish a stronger accountability relationship between the audit team and the rapporteur member:

– Given your experience, do you think that the role of a member is to be more involved in the audit work?

Staff is ECA’s main asset. I had the chance to work with highly professional and motivated auditors. My relations with the audit teams are based on trust, close cooperation and openness. Auditors must feel empowered to carry out their work without unnecessary supervision or micro-management. Still, they know they can rely on my support and the full involvement of my private office, when facing difficult situations. I help set directions, choose between alternative options and identify the main messages. Overall, I take responsibility for the quality of the report and make sure it is soundly evidenced. I am also encouraging the Head of Task to participate in the promotion of the report, supporting me in press briefings, accompanying me to the presentation in Parliament and participating in conferences or round tables. Involving staff increases their motivation and their understanding of the expectations of our stakeholders.

– Would you change the way you work with an audit team? If yes, how?

My working experience with audit teams has been very positive and I would not see a need to change my collaborative approach. However, based on the same spirit of trust and openness, my private office staff and I are attentive to feedback received from the audit teams and ideas to further improve.

9. What would be your suggestions to further improve, modernise the ECA functioning, programming and work (audit cycle)? After your first mandate, could you give us a positive aspect of the ECA working and a negative one?

New technologies can play a key role in improving the way we function. We have set up a group of IT audit specialists to experiment, support new audit approaches and spread knowledge amongst our staff. With a better connection to various databases set up by our auditees, we could expand our use of their data to carry out whole-of-population analyses. Artificial intelligence may also help our auditors gain access to information, carry out rapid analyses, deal with documents in various languages, perform data analysis or improve the drafting. There are several hurdles to overcome, such as gaining full access to data, or ensuring the protection of confidential information. The technology also has some limits. In any case, it is essential that the auditor stays in control, with a full audit trail to ensure the reliability of the results obtained.

The most positive aspect about working at ECA is its expertise and the motivation of its staff. Together, we have been able to handle very complex topics and produce useful reports for our stakeholders. On the negative side, the ECA sometimes has heavy coordination and review procedures meant to guarantee the uniformity and quality of our reports. They tend to weigh on our efficiency and I think we can find a better balance.

10. Under the Treaty, the Court is required to assist Parliament in exercising its powers of control over the implementation of the budget in order to enhance both the public oversight of the general spending and its value for money:

– With the experience of your first term, how could the cooperation between the Court of Auditors and the European Parliament (Committee on Budgetary Control) on auditing the EU budget be further improved?

The purpose of the ECA performance audit reports is to bring evidence to the public debate on how well EU-funded policies and programmes are working. The European Parliament is our main stakeholder and I am delighted to see a high and increasing interest in our work. Important debates take place during the presentation of our reports to the European Parliament Committee, in the presence of the Commission representatives. These are building blocks for the discharge procedure, but also help shape future policies. Joint Committee meetings have also contributed to a richer and wider discussion on our reports. There is still room for progress and it is important to establish a regular dialogue between the Parliament’s Committees and our Chambers. The main channel has historically been the very constructive annual meetings with the Committee for Budgetary Control. I am happy to see this practice is extending to other Committees. As Chamber I Member, I participated to meetings with the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development and with the Committee for Environment, Climate and Food Safety that were extremely useful to clarify expectations and enhance cooperation.

– Similarly, how to strengthen relations between ECA and national audit institutions?

Through the INTOSAI and the EUROSAI, supreme audit institutions have established channels to develop their auditing standards, exchange on methodology, discuss latest policy developments and share innovative practices. The Contact Committee ensures cooperation between the ECA and the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Member States. The ECA should continue to be a very active partner sharing its experience auditing EU policies and funds, and learning from other peers’ experience. The EU’s Supreme Audit Institutions are also involved in checking similar EU action from a national perspective. There is a need to promote different forms of cooperation between the EU and national auditors, such as coordinating some audits on a common or similar topics. Joint conferences are also useful to communicate on the recent audits carried out at EU and national levels.

11. How will you support the Parliament in the achievement of the shortening of the discharge procedure? What actions can be undertaken from your side?

The ECA is at the full disposal of the Parliament during the discharge procedure and is replying diligently to all request for hearings or to additional questions. An earlier publication of our Annual Report could be considered to help shortening the procedure. We have explored ways to achieve efficiency gains in the adversarial procedure with the Commission or in the translation and post-production processes. For shared management expenditure, the Commission also depends on the diligence of the replies of national authorities. Working with shorter deadlines would require efforts on all sides and, where possible, further automation of our processes. I will support further progress in this area.

Independence and integrity

12. What guarantees of independence are you able to give the European Parliament, and how would you make sure that any past, current or future activities you carry out could not cast doubt on the performance of your duties at the ECA?

Trained and working as a Judge of the Hellenic Court of Audit, I always had a strong culture of independence. At the ECA, we also abide by high ethical standards reflected in our Code of Conduct and submit ourselves to the scrutiny of our Ethics Committee. As all ECA Members, I transparently publish and regularly update my declaration of interests. In line with the international INTOSAI and our ECA standards, I have carried out my work as auditor with the sole interest of the EU citizens in mind.

13. How would you deal with a major irregularity or even fraud in EU funds and/or corruption case involving persons in your Member State of origin? Were you in this situation during your current mandate?

If an audit team were to discover a case of possible fraud in Greece or in any other country, I would ask them to follow the ECA procedures for such situations, which is to send the case to OLAF and the EPPO. I have not come across such case in Greece during this mandate. Working mostly on performance audits, we would usually cover in more depth four or five member states (which might not include Greece) and the focus would generally be more on results achieved rather than the legality of the expenditure.

I keep myself informed of cases of fraud reported in the Greek media, as they are often a topic for public debate, for example during my presentation of the ECA’s annual report in Greece.

14. The existence of conflict of interests can trigger a reputation risk for the ECA. How would you manage any conflict of interest?

As all ECA Members, I have submitted and updated when necessary my declaration of interests. Should I be confronted with a situation that could be perceived as a conflict of interest, I would discuss it with the President and other ECA Members and find a way how to eliminate this risk, for instance, by assigning the task to another Reporting Member. The Ethics Committee is also competent to deal with some of these cases.

15. Are you involved in any legal proceedings? if so, what kind?

No, I am not involved in any legal proceedings.

16. What specific commitments are you prepared to make in terms of enhanced transparency, increased cooperation and effective follow-up to Parliament’s positions and requests for audits?

The ECA reports back to the Parliament on all comments made during the discharge procedure and on every proposal for an audit task (see reply to question 6 regarding the criteria applied by ECA). Improving cooperation on these issues was discussed during the annual meetings with the CONT Committee and meetings with other Parliamentary Committees. These exchanges are precious and could take place more often (see also the reply to question 10). During these meetings, we could present data on the number of proposals received and taken on board, and the most common reasons for not selecting some of them.

Other questions

17. Will you withdraw your candidacy to a renewal of mandate if Parliament’s opinion on your appointment as Member of the ECA is unfavourable?

The Parliament is our main stakeholder and the voice of the EU citizens that we have put at the core of our strategy. The Parliament’s trust in my qualities, experience, integrity and motivation are essential to the performance of my duties. I could not maintain my candidacy in case of an unfavourable opinion.

18. Being appointed Member of the ECA requires full attention and dedication to the institution itself and to ensure trust for the Union among its citizens:

– What are your views on the best way to assume these professional duties?

Members are expected to lead by example and this is key for the people’s trust in our institution and in the EU project. I will continue to give my full dedication to my duties as I have done over the past 12 years. I am committed to intense cooperation with the other ECA Members in line with the principle of collegiality and with ECA staff, our main asset. I will do my utmost to promote ECA’s work as widely as possible, in parliamentary hearings, press briefings or conferences. I will continue to spread knowledge about the ECA, its work and values by updating the books I published in Greek on the functioning of the ECA and on the accountability principle, and by writing articles.

– What are your current personal arrangements in terms of number of days of presence in Luxembourg? Do you plan to change these arrangements?

Over the past 12 years, I have been working on a daily basis in my office in Luxembourg. I am a permanent resident in the country, living in a rented appartement. I do not intend to change these arrangements.