WRITTEN QUESTION P-0568/04 by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission. Final report concerning Eurostat.
Date: 2004-02-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Anti-fraud Office, European Commission, European Parliament, European official, Eurostat, audit, award of contract, fraud against the EU, interinstitutional relations (EU), report, services company, services contract

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/811

(2004/C 84 E/0905)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0568/04

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(19 February 2004)

Subject: Final report concerning Eurostat

The Internal Audit Service’s final report on the awarding of contracts at Eurostat was announced for
February 2004.

Is that still the case, and when will the report be forwarded to Parliament?

According to information from Mrs Schreyer, the investigation into former UCLAF and OLAF officials for
neglect of duty (including in connection with Eurostat) is nearing completion. When is the report likely to
be submitted?

In the six months before the Eurostat affair became public in May 2003, the firm Planistat obtained no
fewer than 20 new contracts from Eurostat which were subsequently terminated in summer 2003. Is that
latest and last batch of contracts the subject of OLAF investigations, or is OLAF confining itself only to
events in 1999, 2000 and 2001?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(31 March 2004)

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that the report by the Internal Audit Service
supplementing the examination of the contracts conducted in 2003 has now been finalised. Internal Audit
Service reports are normally intended for the party being audited, in this instance the Commission and its
departments.

However,
in order to help Parliament perform its supervisory work and since the Budgetary Control
Committee is likely to ask to see the report in due course, the Commission is prepared to forward the
report to your institution. It will send the report to the Chair of the Budgetary Control Committee,
Ms Theato, for the attention of Mr Bayona, who is the rapporteur for the 2002 discharge, and of Mr Bösch,
to the
fraud, on the terms laid down in Annex III
who is the rapporteur for the fight against
Interinstitutional Framework Agreement signed by Parliament and the Commission in June 2000.

The internal investigation to which the Honourable Member refers and which concerns former officials of
the anti-fraud coordination office, UCLAF (now the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF), is currently being
finalised by OLAF. Once the final investigation report is ready, it will be forwarded in accordance with
Article 9(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 (1).

As regards the contracts awarded to Planistat by Eurostat during the six months prior to May 2003 and
subsequently terminated, OLAF confirms that there is no investigation under way.

(1) Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 concerning

investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), OJ L 136, 31.5.1999.

(2004/C 84 E/0906)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0573/04

by Michl Ebner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(26 February 2004)

Subject: Start of construction work on the Brenner base tunnel

After years of negotiations, building work on the Brenner base tunnel
is due to start in 2006. This
infrastructure project will involve diverting traffic and will therefore have negative repercussions on people
living near the route, including greater noise nuisance, both during and after construction of the tunnel.