Kinnock moves to address fears over outsourcing

Date: 14/12/00

By John Shelley

INTERNAL reform chief Neil Kinnock plans to end the practice of contracting out the management of key EU programmes in a bid to address one of the fiercest criticisms made of the European Commission by MEPs, auditors and independent experts.

In a paper adopted by the EU executive this week, the Commissioner proposes rules designed to ensure that Union officials remain in charge of the finances of funding programmes even when work is carried out by outside employees.

Under the plan, the Commission would set up its own 'Executive Agencies' to manage programmes and replace the independently-run Technical Assistant Offices (TAOs), which have been tainted by allegations of mismanagement and fraud by the wise men's report, as well as Euro MPs and the European Court of Auditors.

The management of some of these schemes has since been brought back under the Commission's control. But officials say limits on the number of full-time staff the institution can employ means that in the long term, outsourcing is the only option.

Under Kinnock's plans, which must be cleared by member states, big-money programmes would be run by an executive office whose day-to-day director would be a Commission official. In addition, each office would be overseen by a steering committee which, similar to the board of a company, would be responsible for adopting the office's annual work agenda and approving its budget.

Kinnock believes that his proposals would enable the Commission to retain the ease of scrutiny which comes from keeping the offices close to the heart of the EU yet still benefit from employing outsiders on a temporary basis.

Internal reform chief Neil Kinnock plans to end the practice of contracting out the management of key EU programmes in a bid to address one of the fiercest criticisms made of the European Commission by MEPs, auditors and independent experts.