Managing Value‐for‐Money Audit in the European Union: The Challenge of Diversity

There has been a growing recognition over recent years within European Union (EU) legislation (e.g. the regulations governing the Structural Funds of 1988 and 1993, and the new Financial Regulation of 1990), and by managers in the Union institutions that ‘value‐for‐money’ considerations, and review and evaluation, should form part of the financial management and policy‐making process. There is considerable debate, however, about the extent to which these techniques are used by the Commission, the European Court of Auditors (ECA), or within the implementing agencies of the Member States. It is the objective of this article to assess the changes, if any, in deployment and usage of these techniques over the past 15 years or so, and to identify the characteristics of the current arrangements by reference to specific policy areas. In order to define the scope of the study, we discuss the meaning of value‐for‐money (VFM) audit in the EU context, and move on to the framework of these activities within the implementation process. A review of the VFM work of the Commission, Court of Auditors and Member State agencies follows. The study concludes with an analysis of current and future prospects.