Auditor backs sacked official’s claims

Date: 20/06/02

By David Cronin

THE European Commission's chief auditor has backed criticisms of the institution's accounting methods raised by Marta Andreasen, the official dismissed from her post after claiming the system was vulnerable to fraud.

Jules Muis, head of the Commission's internal audit service, said there is a 'strong convergence of views' on the points made by Andreasen, who was appointed as accounting officer in January but stripped of the job last month.

'The problems identified by Mrs Andreasen are also problems identified by the Commission,' he said this week (18 June). 'We agree that there is a problem in the accounting system.'

Accounts relating to €1-2 billion worth of taxpayers' money go through the so-called Sincom system each month, he said. 'If somebody is new as an accounting officer, he or she would tend to get nervous, particularly if there is a vulnerability in the system.'

The Commission has attributed Andreasen's removal to a 'breakdown in confidence' between her and Jean-Paul Mingasson, outgoing head of its directorate-general for budget (DG budget). But it also emerged that the CV the Spanish woman presented to the Commission may have been misleading.

It stated she had worked with the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 1998 to 2001. She was, in fact, suspended without pay in December 1999, after she had strongly berated its accounting system. (However, in a letter to European Voice last week, Andreasen's husband, Octavio Enrique Otano, insisted the Commission was fully aware of the circumstances at the OECD).

Speaking to the European Parliament's committee on budget control, Commissioner Michaele Schreyer said that her colleagues should endorse a proposal on improving the accounting system before their summer break in August.

Steps to improve its security have already been taken after weaknesses in it were pinpointed by the European Court of Auditors.

Among the problems mentioned were that too many officials had access to it and there was no requirement to change passwords needed to use it on a regular basis.

One official who addressed members of the committee sought to play down fears that all files stored on the system would be lost if a complete 'meltdown' occurred.

The Commission, he said, had already simulated such a crash at the end of last year and had been able to show that it would be able to salvage data if one occurred.

The European Commission's chief auditor has backed criticisms of the institution's accounting methods raised by Marta Andreasen, the official dismissed from her post after claiming the system was vulnerable to fraud.