Parliament fails to check freelance translator bills

By David Cronin

Date: 17/11/05

Freelance interpreters hired by the European Parliament are being reimbursed for expenses which they have not incurred, the Court of Auditors suggests.

After analysing a sample of expense claims lodged by interpreters, the financial watchdog found that most who travelled to the Parliament's meetings by plane were given the cost of a business class ticket, "without any evidence, in the file, of the necessity of buying such a ticket".

In a special report on EU interpretation services, the court points out that in 2003, the Parliament spent EUR 57 million on interpretation, compared to EUR 106m for the other EU institutions and some of the Union's agencies.

But the daily cost of interpretation is higher for the Parliament than, for example, the European Commission, which also provides the interpreters for the Council of Ministers.

One major reason behind that discrepancy is the assembly's monthly sessions in Strasbourg.

Unlike Brussels, "very few" freelance interpreters live near Strasbourg, say the auditors, causing an increase in travel and accommodation costs.

In 2003, these represented 22% of all payments to freelance interpreters used by the assembly.

The auditors criticise the "waste of financial resources" caused by the late cancellation of meetings. In those cases, interpreters still had to be paid.

In the Parliament, calling off meetings at short notice meant that EUR 4m "was spent on services made available but not used" in 2003, while the corresponding figure for the Council of Ministers was EUR 2.3m.

In the Commission, the need to have interpreters on stand-by for unscheduled meetings costs the taxpayer about EUR 18m per year.

Although the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) has run joint competitions for interpreters for the main EU institutions, the auditors find that co-operation between the Parliament and Commission in this field is wanting.

Both bodies compete to recruit freelance interpreters in Brussels, the auditors point out.

The auditors urge that the option of founding a single office for providing interpretation to all EU institutions should be assessed.

Responding to the auditors' findings, the Parliament's administration said it was striving to verify "more carefully" the travel expenses of hired interpreters.

The European Court of Auditors on 15 November 2005 published a Special Report in which it suggests that freelance interpreters hired by the European Parliament were being reimbursed for expenses which they had not incurred.

European Court of Auditors: Press Release: ECA/05/15, Information note by the European Court of Auditors on Special Report No 5/2005 concerning interpretation expenditure incurred by the Parliament, the Commission and the Council, 15 .11.05 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=ECA/05/15&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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