MEP lambasts CoR fraud probe as ‘joke and an insult’

Date:24/07/03

By Martin Banks

AN INVESTIGATION into alleged serious financial mismanagement at an EU institution has been branded "a joke and insult" to the European Parliament.

The Court of Auditors was asked to carry out an audit into the Committee of the Regions (CoR) after the European Parliament withheld discharge of its 2001 accounts, over concerns that the financial controls were insufficient.

Following a three-month inquiry, the Court's President, Juan Fabra Vallés, has now written to CoR President Albert Bore absolving the Committee of any wrongdoing. Vallés writes: "The findings of the Court's review of the Committee's 2001 accounts do not show any substantial infringement of the budgetary or financial rules."

But Dutch Socialist MEP Michiel van Hulten branded the report a "joke and insult". He said: "His [Fabra Vallés'] letter consists of a single page, a mere 170 words.

"It does not comply with the assembly's original request and reached the Parliament almost three weeks after the 1 July deadline. It is not the "full and independent" audit the Parliament asked for. It says the 2001 accounts don't show any "substantial" infringements, but what does substantial mean?"

Van Hulten, who went public with alleged fraud and mismanagement at the CoR last spring, added he understood that the Court did prepare a full report on the committee but that "the full Court voted not to transmit this report to Parliament".

• A report on a separate investigation into CoR by OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud office, is imminent. The investigation centres on allegations of fraudulent travel expenses and misuse of official cars by CoR staff.

The European Court of Auditors has absolved the Committee of the Regions of any wrongdoing following the European Parliament raised possible financial mismanagement at the institution.