By Martin Banks - 6th March 2008
An MEP who has published details of a confidential parliamentary report on his website says he is “unafraid” of possible disciplinary action.
Dutch Green MEP Paul van Buitenen was speaking after he distributed a five-page summary of the internal auditors’ report into an alleged expenses scam by MEPs.
Having signed a confidentiality clause which forbids members from divulging details of the report, he told this website he realises he may faces possible disciplinary action.
“If that is the case, then I am perfectly happy to face the consequences,” he said.
“I did what I felt was the right thing to do.”
His comments come as parliament comes under fresh pressure to publish the report. A routine meeting of the conference of presidents, or political group leaders, on Thursday will hear from Dutch member Hans Blokland that the report should be made public.
Van Buitenen was one of the first members of the budget control committee to see the report, which parliament refuses to publish because it says the document does not reveal cases of fraud.
However, the summary of the report indicates money intended for hiring parliamentary staffers went in some cases to members' own bank accounts, to nonexistent companies and to members who had no staff at all.
The report has ruffled the parliament since its existence was made public last month, and again cast unwanted attention on what critics alleged are the free-spending ways of the EU’s representative body.
Van Buitenen's account of the still-secret report couldn't be confirmed, though its broad outlines are consistent with at least one other member's description of the report.
The pay issue has arisen because the parliament allows members to take an allowance of as much as about €185,000 a year, paid monthly, to hire staff. Members can then designate a "service provider" to administer the payments to staffers - with little oversight from parliament.
Van Buitenen's summary says the auditor randomly selected 167 allowance payments for scrutiny. In two cases, it said, the member getting the allowance had no "accredited assistants" at all; in one case he had only one.
Some "service providers" themselves seemed questionable. One appeared to be a child-care company; another was a wood-trading firm, the summary said.
Members can hire staffers directly. The summary said one member employed a person who appeared to be his wife. In another case, two of a member's staffers appeared to be employees of a consulting firm of which the member was a director.
Three payments, the summary said, "were made to bank accounts that belonged to the member".
The audit also found questionable severance payments, the summary said. One staffer, Van Buitenen wrote, racked up a monthly salary of €8,890 during three months between parliamentary sessions - consisting of severance payments from five members and employment payments from seven others.
In late February, parliament disclosed the existence of the report, but said in a press release the audit "did not reveal cases of fraud" and hence shouldn't be turned over to the EU's antifraud agency. After an outcry, the agency requested the report nonetheless and has begun a probe.
Van Buitenen incurred parliament’s wrath last July when he divulged details of a private budget control committee meeting on his allegations of irregularities at Olaf.
“I was threatened with disciplinary action then but I have heard nothing,” he said.
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