The European Court of Auditors (ECA) expressed on Tuesday concern over how European money was spent on Syrian refugees in Turkey given Ankara's data protection laws.
EU auditors said Ankara is refusing to offer information about the list of beneficiaries of two cash-assistance projects for refugees, which account for almost half of the budget.
Therefore, neither the European Commission nor the ECA was able to track project beneficiaries from registration to payment.
European officials said it was the first time Turkey refuses to offer the needed documents.
In a report published Tuesday, the Court’s auditors focused on the management of the first tranche of financing from the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (€3 billion) and on the results so far under its humanitarian strand.
They found that, in a challenging context, the Facility rapidly mobilized €3 billion to provide a swift response to the refugee crisis.
“Nevertheless, it did not fully achieve its objective of coordinating this response effectively,” the court wrote in its report.
The Facility for Refugees in Turkey is the EU response to the European Council's call for significant additional funding to support refugees in Turkey.
“We therefore conclude that the Facility could have been more effective, and that it could achieve more value for money,” the auditors said.
Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria.
“The Facility achieved its objective of mobilizing three billion euros in two years,” said Bettina Jakobsen, the member of the ECA.
“But there is room to increase the efficiency of humanitarian projects and in particular cash-assistance projects. The Facility could still achieve greater value for money,” she said.
The auditors recommend that, in the future, the European Commission should better address refugees’ needs for municipal infrastructure and socio-economic support and together with the Turkish authorities, address the need to improve the operating environment for NGOs.
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