| Author (Person) | Banks, Martin |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.39, 20.11.03, p3 |
| Publication Date | 20/11/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
|
By Martin Banks Date: 20/11/03 PLANS aimed at reforming the EU's much-criticized accounting system were this week dismissed as "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted". The wide-ranging proposals, outlined by European Commission President Romano Prodi to MEPs in Strasbourg, are designed to avoid a repeat of the Eurostat affair, which exposed how millions of euro were diverted into secret slush funds by bosses at the Luxembourg-based statistical agency. Prodi detailed his plans on Tuesday (18 November) after the Court of Auditors unveiled its annual report,which highlighted serious "shortcomings" in the EU's accounting system. His proposals include a change in the code of conduct governing relations between commissioners and their departments, in order to place more emphasis on commissioners' political responsibility. There will be a specific procedure to enable directors-general to alert their commissioner to any fact or development for which the commissioner might have such responsibility and a new early warning system for cross-checking all information relating to allegations of fraud, irregularities or wrongdoing. "I have also decided to take personal responsibility for the political supervision of this system myself," said Prodi, after accepting that the Commission had missed early signals of the fraud at Eurostat. The EU executive also intends to take a series of technical measures, such as supervision by the central financial service of internal control systems set up by the directorates-general; communication to the Commission's Internal Audit Service (IAS) of reports on audits carried out within the directorates-general; checks on the implementation of recommendations in the audits; mobility for sensitive posts, and; procedures applying to whistleblowers. Prodi also announced that the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF, would become an external body - though it was not clear from this whether that means entirely independent of the Commission. He said the executive wanted OLAF to refocus its activities and to assign "horizontal tasks", which are unrelated to investigations to Commission departments. He stressed that there should be clear rules on the flow of information between OLAF and the institutions, to ensure precautionary measures are put in place to avoid fraud. But many members of the Parliament's budgetary control committee, Cocobu, were unimpressed, saying the proposals were too little and too late. German Socialist member Herbert Bösch, rapporteur on the protection of the EU's financial interests, said: "These measures could and should have been dealt with from the start of the present Commission's term." The Eurostat case had not just been a problem of internal communication, he pointed out, adding that the Commission had not listened to Parliament when it drew attention to the problems at Eurostat over a year ago. Juan José Bayona de Perogordo, rapporteur for the 2002 discharge, accused the Commission of seeking to shift some of the responsibility for the case on to OLAF, "like a thief accusing the police of not having watched him closely enough". He and German Socialist Helmut Kuhne warned that no measures were being proposed to deal with a situation where a director-general failed to inform his or her commissioner of problems. Marta Andreasen, the former Commission accounting officer who was suspended 15 months ago after highlighting weaknesses in its accounting system, dismissed Prodi's action plan as "a clear case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted". "The Court has failed to give the accounts the all-clear for the ninth year running. This, on top of the Eurostat scandal, proves there is fraud in the accounts. Little appears to have been done to stop it and yet still no one is prepared to take responsibility for this failure. "These proposals from Prodi will do little to restore public confidence in the EU," added Andreasen, who was in Strasbourg to hear Prodi's speech. Dutch Socialist Michiel van Hulten said: "I welcome a strengthening of the code of conduct but the proposed reforms involving OLAF do not go far enough." UK Conservative Chris Heaton-Harris commented: "Prodi says one thing and does another. He tells his commissioners they should take political responsibility in principle, but not in practice. So much for the squeaky-clean Commission." Belgian deputy Nelly Maes, meanwhile, leader of the European Free Alliance group, said: "Prodi's Commission would do well to remember the fate of the previous Santer Commission that fell over a fraud case because it failed to shoulder its political responsibility. Prodi promised us "zero tolerance" but it took a huge level of media coverage before he appeared before us to explain himself. It is simply not good enough now for him to try and explain away responsibility for this mess by blaming a lack of resources." MEPs fear that Romano Prodi's proposals to strengthen the Internal Audit Service, released on 18 November 2003, are a case of 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'. |
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