HEY, EVEN ENRON WAS BETTER THAN THIS:

Fraud, errors and complacency in the management of the European Union’s €98bn (£61bn) budget were yesterday laid bare in ahard-hitting annual report by the EU’s court of auditors.

The report confirms many of the allegations made by Marta Andreasen, the suspended EU chief accountant, who claimed the European Commission’s accounting system is deeply flawed.

For the eighth year in a row, the court was only able to certify that 5 per cent of the EU’s expenditure – mainly relating to internal administration – was legal and regular. The remaining 95 per cent, including the sprawling farm and regional aid budgets, was not given a positive statement of assurance “due to the incidence of errors found”.

Incidents of fraud detected include the usual bizarre assortment of fraudulent subsidy claims, including those paid for non-existent sheep and for imaginary Alpine pastures.

Hmm. Remember the tut-tutting about “American-style capitalism” from Euro-politicos when the Enron scandal broke? Somebody call them for comments on this. . . .