Anti-fraud unit looks into Italian centre

Date: 05/11/1998

By Simon Taylor

THE European Commission's anti-fraud unit UCLAF has been called in to investigate a new case of alleged irregularities in an EU agency, this time at the Union's scientific research centre in the Italian town of Ispra.

The move comes as a report drawn up by a delegation from the European Parliament highlights six cases of alleged irregularities at the centre, including claims that one of the centre's staff awarded generous contracts to his wife.

The Euro MPs who compiled the report have, however, praised the authorities at the centre for reacting quickly to reports of irregularities and instigating their own inquiry.

A spokesman for Research Commissioner Edith Cresson said that if internal investigations found evidence to support claims that an Ispra employee had given valuable work to his wife, a "disciplinary process" would be started against the person involved, who has not been named.

The spokesman stressed, however, that there were no allegations of fraud or of money going missing in this case.

Nevertheless, the Parliament report highlighted a number of problems at the centre, which has an annual budget of 60 million ecu and is responsible for a range of research projects including programmes designed to tackle fraud in agriculture and in excise duty.

The complexity of the centre's financial accounts were criticised on the grounds that this made them difficult to audit. The report also claimed that the centre's costs were higher than they should have been, due mainly to the fact that its headquarters are far larger than they need to be. Originally designed to house 3,000 staff, the centre only employs 1, 200 people and maintenance costs are high because two nuclear reactors built for research purposes have to be kept in running order even though they are not in active use.

The MEPs recommended that the atomic facilities should be dismantled to cut the costs. They also called for tougher controls on how money is spent, especially at associated research centres in other parts of the Union, and on the way that the centre awards contracts for projects to outside research institutes.