The European Commission's former chief accountant Marta Andreasen renewed accusations today against the commission for failing to comply with basic accounting standards and using an insecure computer system open to fraud.
Andreasen was removed from her post in May, just four months into the job, after criticising accounting and financial reforms undertaken by the commission since 1999.
The commission, meanwhile, said that disciplinary procedures were underway against its former chief accountant and that she faced charges of breaching rules governing the conduct of employees.
Andreasen said there was a "dangerous failing at the heart of the (EU's) system" because of a "complete lack of compliance with basic and minimum accounting standards".
"The computer system on which financial transactions are processed is incoherent, insecure," she told BBC radio. "People can access this system" without being detected," she added.
Speaking later at a press conference in the House of Commons, Andreasen said: "An institution that doesn't have an accounting system is open to a big size of fraud."
She declined to estimate how much of the European Union's £63 billion budget was at risk, but said: "Taxpayers' money is at stake. I have been able to prove the systems are vulnerable (but) quantifying it is very difficult.
"I can no longer remain silent on the issues involved," she added. "They are critical to every member state and taxpayers, and represent a sad indictment of the failure within the commission to address concerns.