The heads of the European Commission will have an investigation in connection with fraud

The European Commission was at the center of the most loud scandal for four years of the chairmanship of Romano Prodi. According to The Times (translation on the website inopressa.ru ), the Brussels leader, whose task was to end abuse, had to go to an unprecedented measure: to start a disciplinary investigation of the activities of three high -ranking officials, presumably guilty of fraud.

The investigation was sent against the General Director of the European Statistical Administration of Eurostat, and his two deputies. During the internal investigation, financial abuses were discovered from contracts for artificially overstated amounts to double accounting.

The honesty of management employees with a staff of 760 people in Luxembourg is of great importance for the EU. EUROSTAT data are used by the European Central Bank to determine the discount rate and the European Commission to develop a budget policy. All EU countries rely on the accuracy of these data.

The commission denies that the scandal was reflected in the quality of Eurostat, but European parliamentarians were not so optimistic. Chris Hong, a press secretary of the liberal democrats on the problem of the euro, said: "These conclusions cause deep concern."

It is also a blow to Neil Kinnok, the vice president of the commission, which is responsible for the reform of her managerial methods. “We have evidence of possible abuses that have taken place for a long time,” he admitted yesterday.

The decision to begin the disciplinary procedure against the Frenchman Iva Franche and two directors, Daniel Bik and the Fotius Nanopulos was adopted after the investigation, which was conducted by the internal audit service of the commission over the past three weeks.

Her preliminary report submitted by the commission yesterday says that "serious violations on a much larger scale could take place than expected." It is claimed that the cost of contacts concluded by Eurostat was artificially overstated for the sake of financing other activities, and some of these contracts, apparently, are fictitious, and the auditors of the commission were not informed about their existence. Although oral instructions were given in 1999 aimed at terminating such a practice, the report indicates that there were no measures to fulfill these instructions.

Kinnok refused to comment on the report, suggesting that we are talking about the amount of 1 million euros (600 thousand pounds), and saying that it will take time to establish an exact number. However, the report says: "Part of the funds may be lost due to bankruptcy of the companies in question."

The report does not say how the funds were used, but the assumption is expressed that some announcements of tenders "apparently were tendential in the sense that they had in mind the pre-selected companies." This may relate to contracts concluded in 1999 with the French company of economic and statistical consulting Planistat.

Kinnok said that the commission suspended all 58 contracts with Planistat, 48 of which was concluded with Eurostat, and this week the Eurostat archives were taken under the security service of the commission before the end of the investigation.

Before its completion, three officials in the center of the scandal are transferred to the position of consultants not related to the management of the commission in the personnel department of the commission.

Sources in the commission claim that Planistat concluded contracts for a “auxiliary” work, including Eurostat marketing.

The British Treasury welcomed the decision of the commission and stated that it was a very serious possibility of fraud.

The Chairman of the European Parliament Pat Cox admitted that, having learned about the size of abuse, he experienced the "feeling of Deja vu". Having mentioned the scandalous resignation of Jacques Santer in 1999, he stated: "It is deeply disappointed that 4 years after the unprecedented resignation of the European Commission in full force, we fall into the same situation."

However, Cox noted that the Prodi Commission, unlike its predecessors, is investigated by the scandal openly and energetically, cooperating with parliament.

The commission does not exclude the possibility of suspension of contracts between the statistical administration and other companies, this will depend on the conclusions of the new report, which will be presented in two weeks.

Cox rejected the assumption that the commission conducts an investigation of abuse slowly, and only the messages that appeared in the press prompted it to action.

“For these two and a half weeks, we managed to get important evidence,” he said. “When an independent and qualified fraud service is available, all materials are transferred there.”

The fraud service is conducting its own investigation in statistical administration. Until its end, disciplinary measures against three high -ranking officials will not be taken.