The EU has been paying the wages of thousands of civil servants in the Gaza Strip who have not worked for up to six years, according to a critical audit of the bloc’s multibillion-euro Palestinian aid programme.
The European Court of Auditors report, seen by the Financial Times, will catalogue serious shortcomings in Brussels’ management of the EU’s flagship direct aid programme, which is the Palestinian Authority’s biggest source of outside income.
While the European Commission has defended the payments as a “political instrument” to keep alive the goal of a two-state solution, the findings will stir debate over the execution of ambitious EU aid programmes at a time of domestic austerity.