WRITTEN QUESTION P-2338/02

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(22 July 2002)

Subject: Shortcomings in the Commission's financial control and accounts

Finance safeguards are seriously weak says chief auditor says a headline in the weekly paper European Voice of 4 July 2002. The paper claims that Jules Muis, Director-General and head of the Commission's internal audit service, has strongly criticised the Commission's accounting system. Mr Muis is also said to have criticised the Commission for avoiding setting up the post of a central financial controller, thus making it harder to create clear responsibilities.

Can the Commission send me a copy of Mr Muis's letter from which the European Voice quotes extensively?

Can the Commission also provide me with a copy of the answer sent by the Director-General for the Budget?

Does the Commission agree that Mr Muis's criticism is largely identical to the critical statements by Mrs Andreasen, who was subsequently relieved of her duties as the Commission's accounting officer?

Can the Commission tell me when Commissioner Schreyer complied with the call by the Committee on Budgetary Control (letter from Mrs Theato to Mrs Schreyer of 6 June 2002) and asked Mrs Andreasen to put her criticisms in writing so that they could be forwarded to Parliament?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(14 November 2002)

The letter to which the Honourable Member refers was based on preliminary findings of an on-going audit and, in keeping with normal practice in organisations of all kinds, it should not have been circulated outside the Institution. Neither the Financial Regulation nor the relevant professional standards for internal auditing provide that preliminary results of ongoing internal audit work are shared outside the institution. This is to protect the relationship between internal auditor and auditee, which is essential to an effective internal audit function. It would not, therefore, be appropriate for the Commission to communicate material which it does not consider to be proper for others to communicate.

As provided for by the Financial Regulation, the Parliament regularly receives reports by the Internal Auditor, which summarise audit findings, recommendations and follow-up.

The internal notes referred to by the Honourable Member were preparatory to the establishment of the Annual Activity Report and Declaration of the Director General for Budgets. As the Honourable Member will have observed, the Budget Director General's Annual Activity Report and Declaration, as well as the Internal Auditor's Annual Report, both of which have been transmitted to Parliament, contain ample indications of the problems in the Commission's accounting system which have been previously identified by the Court of Auditors and the Commission and are, consequently, the subject of ongoing reforms.

During a recent meeting of Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee, in which the Member of the Commission in charge of the Budget and a Member of the European Court of Auditors participated, the Internal Auditor stated that in his opinion there was a clear convergence of views on these problems between all parties. This was confirmed by the statements made by the different parties during the meeting.

The Member of the Commission in charge of the Budget wrote to Mrs Andreasen on 29 May 2002 inviting her to put her criticisms in writing and to substantiate one allegation in particular. Mrs Andreasen explicitly refused to do that in an e-mail dated 30 May.