Dismay as CoR’s accounts are passed by budget committee

By Martin Banks

Date: 18/12/03

MEPS have been accused of "turning a blind eye" to fraud after certifying the 2001 accounts of the Committee of the Regions.

The European Parliament initially refused to sign off the CoR's accounts over concerns about financial mismanagement at the troubled Brussels-based institution.

A report by OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud agency, recently revealed "systematic and flagrant incompetence" within the Committee, with respect to "the essential rules of tendering procedures". It concluded that "most threatening for the CoR seems to be the endemic culture of unprofessionalism and improvisation".

It recommended the opening of disciplinary procedures against two senior CoR members, its former Italian secretary-general Vincenzo Falcone and head of press Yalamboukidou Lambrini.

Despite the damning findings by OLAF, the Parliament's budgetary control committee voted in favour of granting discharge to the CoR accounts at a meeting on Monday. The vote will be put before the Parliament's plenary in January.

The decision was condemned by committee member Chris Heaton-Harris, a UK Conservative. He said: "Parliament has once again turned a blind eye to fraud and the misuse of taxpayers' money. One of the powers we have is to hold off from giving the accounts the all-clear until problems are sorted out. MEPs have again failed to do so."

However, the decision to certify the Committee's 2001 accounts was defended by another member of the committee, Dutch Socialist Michiel van Hulten.

He was "reasonably satisfied" the CoR was trying to clean up its act, adding: "I voted in favour of discharge, but I regard this as the CoR's last chance."

Despite the findings by OLAF of 'systematic and flagrant incompetence' in the accounts of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), the European Parliament's Budget Control Committee voted on 15 December 2003 in favour of granting discharge to the CoR accounts. UK MEP Chris Heaton-Harris accused the Parliament of ignoring fraud and the misuse of taxpayers money.