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A road construction in Benin funded by
the European Union.
Photo by: G. Barton / EU
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European Union
auditors have urged the regional bloc to better manage its infrastructure
development projects after finding that roads in several sub-Saharan countries
weren’t built to last.
The European
Court of Auditors on Jan. 15 recommended that “in a number of
respects,” European Development Fund resources could be better focused and the
regional bloc should engage more vigorously in a “policy dialogue with the
partner countries’ governments” and make ”better use of conditions attached to
its” programs to maximise the effectiveness of its road network projects in
sub-Saharan Africa.
“The aid-recipient countries visited
by the Court do not do enough to ensure the sustainability of road
infrastructure,” the auditors said in a statement. “In all partner countries
visited by the Court, roads are affected to varying degrees by premature
deterioration. Most of these countries have adopted institutional reforms,
notably entailing the creation of road funds and road agencies, and made
significant progress on road maintenance. However, many challenges remain to be
addressed in all of them to ensure appropriate maintenance.”
The EU has been one of sub-Saharan
Africa’s top infrastructure donors - although its investments lag considerably
behind those of China, the continent’s leading foreign investor in that realm.
A total of 7.4 billion euros ($9.8 billion) from the European Development Fund
was spent to build modern roads and highways between 1995 and 2011, according
to EurActiv. Auditors inspected 48 EU-funded projects in Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Chad, Tanzania and Zambia and covered some 2,400 kilometers of
highways, the publication added.
The audit comes on the heels of fierce EU
budget negotiations that ended with generous funding for external
affairs, including development cooperation.
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