Prodi to face probe over contracts for niece’s firm

Date: 13/11/03

MEMBERS of the European Parliament's financial watchdog have called on Romano Prodi to explain if any favouritism has been shown in the awarding of contracts for EU foreign aid programmes to an Italian firm that employs his niece.

Italtrend has won contracts worth a total of €15 million from the European Commission since 1999, the year Prodi became its president.

The procurement and technical assistance company is based in Prodi's home region of Reggio Emilia. Silvia Prodi is one of 15 employees.

MEPs on the assembly's budget control committee have called on Prodi to state if he has ever made any representations on behalf of the firm, when he updates them on the Eurostat inquiry on 18 November.

The deputies were told of the family connection between Prodi and the firm by European Voice, after Commission officials raised concerns that the firm may have received preferential treatment.

Danish Liberal MEP Ole Sorensen said: "I hope there is no conflict of interests. But we need clarification."

German Green Heide Rühle concurred. "If there is any link between the president of the Commission and this company, normally it should be declared before it receives any contracts."

Forza Italia's Generoso Andria, of the European People's Party, also said he plans to quiz Prodi about Italtrend.

Established in 1977, the firm has been awarded contracts on projects that range from nuclear safety in the former Soviet Union to developing political constitutions in the West Bank and Gaza. Silvia Prodi, a qualified nuclear engineer, has been working with Italtrend since 1994. She is an assistant to its director Silvana Garavelli.

Speaking yesterday (12 November), Silvia Prodi insisted that the Commission president had never sought special treatment for the firm. "I only meet my uncle once a year - at Christmas," she said. "I have never accepted anything in my life because of my family name."

Describing Garavelli as "one of the top experts in procurement in Europe", she added "there is nothing strange if one of the best procurement agencies in Europe got certain contracts from the Commission".

Garavelli said she could only recall meeting Romano Prodi on two occasions, one of which was at Silvia's wedding, and that she had not talked to him about her company's activities.

As well as gaining l15 million in contracts, Italtrend has been the Commission's representative in various tendering processes. In 2000, for example, it took care of the procedure for supplying safety equipment for the Novovoronezh nuclear complex in Russia. But Silvia Prodi said the work was of a clerical nature and the firm played no role in deciding who won the final deals.

Most of the EU contracts amassed by Italtrend in recent years have been from the EuropeAid cooperation office, which was set up in 2001 to coordinate the Union's external assistance programmes. Giorgio Bonacci, EuropeAid director-general, said yesterday: "To the best of my knowledge, we have been under no influence from the president or any other member of the Commission to try and secure contracts with the firm."

Asked if the contracts had been won via open competition, he said they had been awarded in line with relevant regulations and EuropeAid procedure.

Romano Prodi, on a working visit to Senegal yesterday, was unavailable for comment.

The European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee has called on European Commission President Romano Prodi to explain if any favouritism occurred in the awarding of contracts for European Union foreign aid programmes to an Italian firm, Italtrend, that employs his niece, Silvia Prodi.