Muis: ‘time to step down now that pioneering stage is over’

Date: 26/06/03

By Peter Chapman

JULES Muis, the controversial head of the European Commission's internal audit service, says his decision to step down next year marks the end of the "pioneering stage" of financial reforms in the EU executive rather than a rift with his bosses.

His comments to European Voice follow his decision to tell Neil Kinnock, the commissioner for administration, that he would step down from next April after a stormy three-year tenure.

The former World Bank controller insisted he had a record of moving on to pastures new in "two to three years" after he has kick-started reforms that can be completed by his successors.

He said the time has now come for a new face to keep up the fierce pace he set when he installed a radical system forcing the Commission's top managers to sign personal declarations about the money under their management.

"I could work on [at the Commission] until I am 65," said Muis, who is currently 59. "But this job needs more than just cruising speed and the pioneering stage is over." He insisted, however, that he has not yet taken his foot off the reform accelerator.

Muis, also a former partner at accountants Ernst & Young, said this reform stage might have been finished even earlier but manpower restrictions pegged the number of senior "A3" grade officials to two instead of the required five.

In the meantime, Muis refused to be drawn into public criticism of his political masters despite the widespread leakage of a series of critical memos concerning the EU's out of date accounting system.

He said he would "as always, play by the rules".

Muis has been a thorn in the side of commissioners, particularly budget chief Michaele Schreyer, since switching from the World Bank in mid-2001.

He grabbed the headlines last week after a leaked memo he wrote to Schreyer warning that the Commission "could be held in contempt of due diligence by having continued the practice of overstating knowingly the quality of the accounts for 2001". This memo was written just days after MEPs had approved the accounts.

In an earlier leak, Muis implied that Neil Kinnock should have stood-by sacked chief accountant Marta Andreason, who had openly criticized the lack of modern bookkeeping methods. Getting rid of her, he said, would make it appear that the Commission was retreating on its promise to reform, even if this was not the case.

Jules Muis, head of the European Commission's internal audit service will step down in 2004 after having presided over key financial reforms.