OLAF highlights flaws in Commission’s ECHO probe

Date: 03/04/03

By David Cronin

ANTI-fraud office OLAF has pinpointed what it considers to be "remarkable" flaws in how the European Commission investigated the misuse of funds earmarked for Africa and the Balkans, European Voice can reveal.

A confidential 2002 report by seven OLAF 'magistrates' assessed an internal disciplinary probe involving Santiago Gómez-Reino, former head of the Commission's humanitarian office ECHO.

Conducted in 1998-99, the probe centred on allegations that the Spaniard signed fictitious contracts for €2.4 million, for projects in the Balkans and Africa's Great Lakes region.

The report, obtained by this paper, found it "remarkable" that the disciplinary council did not call the chief suspect in the fraud case as a witness.

That suspect was Frenchman Hubert Onidi, then a deputy to Gómez-Reino, who was subsequently dismissed from the Commission for signing a fictitious contract himself and for failing to disclose a potential conflict of interest (his wife was employed by an outside firm working for the Commission).

The report was compiled after OLAF received a dossier containing details of numerous fraud claims in August 2001 from Paul van Buitenen, the 'whistleblower' who triggered the collapse of the Santer Commission in 1999.

OLAF's magistrates also found that the Commission had not furnished important documents on ECHO to the disciplinary council.

For example, it was not given a copy of a report into claims of mismanagement in ECHO by senior Commission official Philip Lowe, now head of its competition directorate-general. The Lowe report, said the magistrates, "indicated that Mr Gómez-Reino knew about the 'fictive' (sic) contracts".

The OLAF report also queried the finding by the disciplinary council that Gómez-Reino could not be held responsible for the activities of Onidi, even though the regulations applying to the EU's civil service say that a top official cannot be released from his or her own responsibility due to what a subordinate has done.

"The disciplinary council did not explain why they made this apparent exception from the general rule," the magistrates said.

The report again branded it remarkable that 60 pages of documents from Onidi's lawyer, Jean-Noël Louis, "were sent to an official of OLAF on 10 August 1999 but he claims to have received them only on 20 March 2001".

Speaking to this newspaper, Gómez-Reino said he could not comment on the substance of the magistrates' findings. However, he argued that the disciplinary council did have access to the Lowe report as his lawyers had transmitted that paper to it.

A Commission spokesman said he has no information showing that the disciplinary proceedings in the ECHO case were flawed.

He explained that reforms undertaken since the resignation of the Santer Commission have led to substantial changes in the whole area of internal investigations.

These include the opening of a new investigation and disciplinary office and the introduction of new training for officials who sit on disciplinary boards.

OLAF has conducted inquiries into the Gómez-Reino affair but a spokesman said he could not comment on the matter.

Gómez-Reino is currently on leave from the Commission to teach on EU affairs in the University of Miami.

In a recent paper, he argued that the Santer team stepped down due to fraud allegations that were "disproportionate, completely unjust and for a large part simply non-existent".

He has been with the Commission for 18 years and has plans to return to Brussels after his stint in Florida concludes in June.

Anti-fraud office OLAF has pinpointed what it considers to be 'remarkable' flaws in how the European Commission investigated the misuse of funds earmarked for Africa and the Balkans, in a confidential report obtained by European Voice.