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| Europe |
| Brussels launches probe into secret accounts |
| 2003-07-17 |
| A widespread inquiry into secret bank accounts and fictitious contracts across the European Commission was launched on Wednesday, amid growing anger at the scale of alleged fraud in the European Union’s executive. Neil Kinnock, EU administration commissioner, is ordering the Commission’s most senior officials to answer a "fraud questionnaire" to assess the extent of the problem. The move reflects fears that the "vast enterprise of looting" which fraud investigators found at Eurostat, the Commission’s statistical arm, may also have occurred in other departments. Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday expressed their concern about the issue and called Romano Prodi, Commission president, to answer questions in September. MEPs accused Mr Kinnock and Pedro Solbes, the commissioner in charge of Eurostat, of failing to heed several earlier warnings about alleged wrongdoing. Some MEPs even called for Mr Solbes’s resignation. Problems were identified at Eurostat by trade unions in 1997, by internal Commission audits in 1999 and 2000 and by Paul van Buitenen, a whistleblower, in 2001, but Mr Solbes said he knew nothing about the scale of the problems until he read newspaper reports in May 2003. You didn’t know about it till you read it in the paper? He said: "I can’t be blamed or asked to take responsibility for something I didn’t know about." Oh, yes you can. Last week Mr Kinnock revealed the "relatively extensive practice" at Eurostat until 1999 of setting up secret and illegal accounts, into which millions of euros are thought to have disappeared. Some Commission officials say the practice, ostensibly to give more "flexibility" in carrying out EU work, was widespread in the 1990s. Mr Kinnock said there was evidence this "utterly reprehensible" practice was continuing and has ordered an immediate inquiry into other Commission departments. He has asked the most senior civil servant in each department to give assurances that all contracts are awarded according to EU law. "Any statements you make can, and will be used against you in a court of law." If the inquiry reveals the practice still exists, it could mean European taxpayers have been defrauded on a large scale, and would place huge pressure on Mr Prodi’s Commission. The last Commission, led by Jacques Santer, was toppled by the parliament in 1999 amid allegations of financial misconduct, and Mr Prodi came in to office promising to clean up the institution with "zero tolerance" towards fraud. The secret bank accounts at Eurostat were set up by Commission officials to hold money paid through inflated contracts to sub-contractors. Mr Kinnock told the parliament’s budgetary control committee: "If they are discovered [elsewhere], for whatever reason and to whatever degree we will take appropriate action." Mr Kinnock says he has no idea how much money has gone into them, or what happens to it. Check the Swiss banks. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 This sentence, perhaps: "Problems were identified at Eurostat by trade unions in 1997, by internal Commission audits in 1999 and 2000 and by Paul van Buitenen, a whistleblower, in 2001" ...as well as the "accountability" shown by Chris Patten's anxious desire to get to the bottom of Arafat's use of EU monies. /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Ernest Brown 2003-7-17 4:37:56 PM |
| #6 Okay, I'm not getting this. In what way does the launch of an inquiry suggest to all you guys that these people are above accountability? Ernest? Hiryu? Or am I not getting the meaning of the word "accountability"? |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2003-7-17 3:48:26 PM |
| #5 That no one is above accountability seems to be a lesson that needs to be relearned in Brussels. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-7-17 1:00:31 PM |
| #4 Gak. "claw his way to the front of the outrage." |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-7-17 12:38:25 PM |
| #3 Sounds like Kinnock is desparately trying to claw his head to the front of the outrage. He's been the chief administrator for a while, and fair bit of this happened on his watch. He has as little excuse as Solbes. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-7-17 12:37:30 PM |
| #2 "I'm shocked, shocked, to learn that financial irregularities occured!" "Your bank book, sir." "Oh, thank you..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-7-17 12:15:10 PM |
| #1 Isn't lack of accountability on a continent-wide scale just "loverly?" |
| Posted by: Ernest Brown 2003-7-17 10:55:29 AM |