WRITTEN QUESTION E-3333/00 by Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Covert investigation of science funding.
Date: 2000-10-25
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, audit, contract, financing, management audit, report, research and development

6.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 163 E/91

Article 87 (formerly Article 92) of the EC Treaty prohibits the granting by the Member States of state aid
which distorts or threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of
certain goods.

The Commission has received a number of complaints about the granting of state aid by way of certain
procedures for the allocation of third-generation mobile telephony licences. These are currently being
looked into. What needs to be established is under what conditions the issue of a licence may be regarded
as State aid: this requires detailed case-by-case analysis.

(2001/C 163 E/097)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3333/00

by Esko Sepp(cid:228)nen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(25 October 2000)

Subject: Covert investigation of science funding

According to an article in the German magazine Stern of 21 September 2000, a covert investigation has
been ordered by Commissioner Schreyer into the disbursement to various projects of funds from the EU(cid:146)s
Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, and into the use of the
consultancy firm of Wang for project evaluations costing DEM 10 million. The investigation showed that
the Commission(cid:146)s action was extremely inefficient and the services provided by the consultancy firm
inadequate. Is this investigation a public document, and is there any truth in the statements concerning the
inefficient handling of the projects and the low quality of the Wang consultancy firm(cid:146)s services?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(19 December 2000)

The report mentioned by (cid:145)Stern(cid:146) concerns a special financial audit of a contract for the provision of
administrative support to the process of receiving and evaluating proposals for research and technological
development (RTD) contracts. The audit was programmed and carried out by Directorate general for
financial control following problems identified during the control of financial transactions. It examined the
execution of the external service provider (ESP) contract from the time that the Commission(cid:146)s advisory
committee on procurement and contracts (ACPC) had given a positive opinion. It sought to identify the
problems experienced by the Commission in the execution of this contract.

This was not a (cid:145)covert investigation(cid:146), but part of the normal processes of examining internal management.
For the same reason, it is not intended for external publication. The version of the audit report seen by
(cid:145)Stern(cid:146) was a draft which is still under discussion and does not contain either the final comments of the
audited Commission Directorates general
Information society (INFSO) and RTD or the adaptations
introduced by the Directorate general for financial control.

The draft audit report concerns the first contractual period of the contract with Wang (now Getronics) and
the difficulties encountered following the launch of the fifth RTD framework programme (FP5). These
difficulties were largely caused by the late adoption of FP5 and the specific programmes implementing it,
and by the circumstances surrounding the resignation of the Commission, which left very little time to
prepare the evaluation sessions.

The audit report identifies several weaknesses in the management and monitoring systems of the audited
services and in the operations of the contractor, especially during the initial period of the contract.
However, the report also concludes that the evaluations were able to take place and provided meaningful
and positive results, a fact also confirmed by reports of independent observers.

The lead services took action to improve the evaluation management of the ESP. The contract was then
renewed at the end of 1999 for a period of one year.

Getronics,
standards in respect of
a demanding process, and is not given lightly.

the ESP, has been certified to International organisation for standardisation (ISO) 9002
this specific service contract since May 2000. This certification involves