WRITTEN QUESTION P-1430/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(4 May 2001)

Subject: Budgetary regulations applying to OLAF

The establishment plan of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for 2001 attributes to OLAF a maximum of 53 permanent posts in Category A.

Can the Commission confirm that this limit has not been respected and that OLAF has instead almost 80 permanent A-Grade Officials on its payroll?

If this is the case, does the Commission agree that this is an irregularity and a serious breach of budgetary regulations, and was this approved by the Commission's Financial Controller?

Is it true that the Director of OLAF indicated this problem to the Commissioner in charge of the Budget and Financial Control as early as October 2000, in connection with the first reading of the budget for 2001 and, if so, what was her reaction, and can the Commission indicate all other areas of the budget where budgetary regulations are violated in the same or similar manner?

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(31 May 2001)

The budgetary authority decided an establishment plan in the 2000 budget procedure that foresaw 194 permanent and 30 temporary posts for the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF). The breakdown included 83 permanent and 15 temporary A posts, 60 permanent and 15 temporary B posts.

For the budgetary year 2001, the preliminary draft budget (PDB) of May 2000 proposed 300 posts for OLAF, including 100 permanent and 24 temporary A posts, and 81 permanent and 26 temporary B posts. During the 2001 budget procedure the Budgetary Control Committee of Parliament prepared a draft amendment, which proposed a radical change to the breakdown suggested in the Commission's proposal, for instance reducing the number of permanent A and B posts by 34, and increasing the temporary posts correspondingly.

The Director of OLAF raised the matter with the member of the Commission responsible for the Budget in September and October 2000. The administrative and budgetary difficulties that such a decision would imply were raised. Having pointed these out to the budgetary authority during the first reading, the member of the Commission responsible for the Budget wrote to the Chairman of the Parliament Budgets Committee on 1 December 2000, after the Council had rejected the amendment in its second reading at the end of November, but before the Parliament's Budgets Committee had voted its second reading opinion in early December. She drew attention to the implementation problems that this was likely to create for the Commission, if adopted by Parliament.

This was one of several comments on the implementation difficulties posed by certain budgetary amendments, rejected by the Council but that were being reconsidered by Parliament in its second reading.

The budgetary authority voted the amended OLAF establishment plan on 14 December 2000, and this is reflected in the published 2001 budget, which foresees now less permanent A-posts than the budgetary plan 2000 and less permanent posts than permanent officials already working in OLAF. Footnote 14 to the OLAF establishment plan states that 76 permanent posts would remain in the reserve until, pursuant to paragraphs 20 and 21 of the resolution of 16 May 2000 a fresh assessment has been made of the suitability of all staff currently working for OLAF and the Commission has accepted the resulting transfer decisions by the Director. The budgetary authority requests an opinion for the OLAF Supervisory Committee prior to a decision on the release of these posts.

OLAF and the Commission took steps to resolve the problems posed by this new situation.

In close consultation with the Directorate General for Personnel and Administration, certain officials were redeployed; this redeployment exercise is continuing.

The OLAF Supervisory Committee gave its agreement on a revised OLAF establishment plan, by written procedure on 30 March 2001. The Commission approved and published the preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget (PDSAB) 3/2001, which contains this revised establishment plan, designed to assure the fulfilment of the missions entrusted to OLAF. The PDSAB 3/2001 is currently awaiting its first reading in the Council before being submitted to Parliament. Its adoption by the budgetary authority will mark the unblocking of the 76 new posts.

As of 15 May 2001, the number of permanent A posts occupied in OLAF totals 71, including one by a temporary official (Article 2b of the Staff Regulations: conditions of employment of other servants of the European Communities). DG Financial Control was informed of the Commission's PDB 2001 and the PDSAB 3/2001, but Parliament's bugetary amendments are not subject to the Commission's financial control scrutiny.

This case raises important issues concerning the executibility of the budget, and is without precedent.