Kinnock accused of suppressing Lowe report on misuse of humanitarian aid

Date: 05/07/01

By David Cronin

Internal reform chief Neil Kinnock has come under renewed pressure to divulge more details about one of the fraud scandals which led to the collapse of Jacques Santer's Commission.

Swedish left-wing MEP Jonas Sjöstedt has lambasted Kinnock for turning down his recent request for a copy of a report into misuse of EU humanitarian aid during the 1990s. The paper - prepared following an investigation into the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) - was compiled by high-ranking official Philip Lowe, who is now Kinnock's chief adviser.

In his reply, Kinnock said that the report must remain confidential because it "contained references which have direct implications for [the] individual rights" of certain officials.

But Sjöstedt dismissed this argument. "If that's the case, then the Commission can simply publish the report and leave out those parts that concern particular individuals. That is the practice in several member states, when publishing these kinds of documents." The deputy added that as long as the Commission decides to suppress this report, there will be suspicions that it is trying to protect staff who may have acted wrongly.

In a series of revelations that led to Santer's team resigning en masse in 1999, it emerged that a Luxembourg-based company, Perry Lux, was being awarded ECHO funds - officially earmarked for projects in Africa and the former Yugoslavia - for fictitious work.

Some of the money involved had been used to pay the wife of a top ECHO official, Hubert Onidi, for a job she did not actually do. At least €2.4 million was embezzled.

Kinnock's spokesman Eric Mamer said that the "framework agreement" which the Commission has reached with Parliament about transmitting information to it, provides for a number of exemptions. The Lowe report fell within those categories. "The Commission has already investigated all of this and as long as no new facts come up, the matter is closed," he added.

Internal reform chief Neil Kinnock has come under renewed pressure to divulge more details about one of the fraud scandals which led to the collapse of Jacques Santer's Commission.