Berlusconi thwarting work of fraud-busters, says report

Date: 23/01/03

By David Cronin

SILVIO Berlusconi is criticised in a European Parliament report for attempting to thwart the work of the body overseeing the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.

The Italian premier failed to support a new mandate for OLAF's supervisory committee because one of its members, his compatriot Edmondo Bruno-Liberati, is unsupportive of Rome's ruling regime.

Although the committee's three-year mandate expired last July, both the European Commission and Parliament approved a plan allowing it to retain its members for another term. But Berlusconi's objections mean the proposal is deadlocked at the Council of Ministers.

A report for the Parliament's budget control committee describes Rome's blocking tactics as "entirely unacceptable".

Its author, Austrian Socialist Herbert Bösch, said: "The Italians are playing strange games. It seems Berlusconi wants to remove the Italian member of the supervisory board because he doesn't fit in with the ideas of the Italian government."

A source close to the supervisory committee pointed out that its members do not represent national governments but are nominated by the Commission and Parliament because of their expertise in combating crime.

"The Italians don't understand or don't want to understand this," the source added.

Berlusconi has had a troubled relationship with OLAF.

In 2001 he tried to prevent three Italian magistrates recruited by it from taking up their posts.

The matter was eventually resolved last year after months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

The Bösch report also highlights concerns about the Commission's number-crunching agency Eurostat.

He asks why Luxembourg-based consultancy Eurogramme was allowed to continue working for it on a €250,000 contract, compiling industrial output data, despite claims by 'whistleblower' Dorte Schmidt-Brown that it had presented a false financial picture of itself.

"No private person would accept that," said Bösch, who also questioned why the agency employed 23 'intra muros' staff from private firms in 2001.

A Commission spokesman said: "Eurostat considered that the company [Eurogramme] did not have a fraudulent intention and that its actions did not constitute serious misrepresentation."

The 23 staff employed from private firms were undertaking work "of a support nature", he added.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is criticised in a European Parliament report for attempting to thwart the work of the body overseeing the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.