CoR officials may have breached criminal law

OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office, has concluded that six officials of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) may have breached criminal law in claiming allowances.

It has decided to send its "adverse findings" on the six officials to the Belgian public prosecutor, who must decide whether to bring charges.

After an investigation into the payment of expatriate allowances in 2004, OLAF sent its findings to Gerhard Stahl, the secretary-general of the Committee of the Regions, on 7 November. Letters have also been sent to the individuals concerned.

In a statement issued to European Voice, Stahl said: "I am studying OLAF’s recommendations to determine whether disciplinary proceedings have to be considered in a small number of cases, and the bureau of the CoR will be informed accordingly."

The bureau - the management group of senior members of the CoR - will discuss its response on 5 December.

In April 2004, the administration of the CoR paid advances on some officials’ monthly salaries to help them qualify for cost-of-living indexation. To benefit from the indexation, which would continue to boost their salaries until 1 January 2009, officials had to be in receipt of the allowances before 1 May 2004.

In 2005, the CoR stopped 18 payments to officials, after an internal audit inquiry. As European Voice reported on 23 March this year, OLAF then launched an investigation.

In its annual report published last month, the European Court of Auditors reminded the CoR that "any sum overpaid shall be recovered if the recipient was aware that there was no due reason for the payment or if the fact of the overpayment was patently such that he could not have been unaware of it".

OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office, has concluded that six officials of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) may have breached criminal law in claiming allowances.