§ 82. Mr. Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will raise at the next meeting of the EEC Council of Ministers the report of the Court of Auditors on the operation of the food aid programme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Chris PattenThe Council's working group on food aid has discussed the report. It agreed that the new procedures that were introduced in 1987 should help the European Community in future to avoid many of the serious problems listed by the Court of Auditors.
§ Mr. TaylorDoes my hon. Friend agree that the report showed that there was massive waste and corruption, that aid for starving people was arriving a year late, and that some food was rotten and inedible and, in one case radioactive? Does he believe that the best way of stopping taxpayers' money being wasted in such an appalling way is to say on 12 February that there will be no additional funds to the Common Market until such scandalous waste at the expense of starving people is stopped?
§ Mr. PattenI am sure my hon. Friend recognises that the report to which he referred concerned the management of food aid that went on before we helped to secure the reform of the regulations during our presidency of the Development Council. The auditors' report confirmed the good sense of the reforms that we pushed through the Development Council.