On Tuesday 15 September, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, published her inspection report on the European Commission's award of a contract to US asset manager BlackRock to carry out a study on the integration of environmental and social factors in the supervision of banks (see EUROPE 12469/30).
The document sets out the Commission's responses on how it assessed the potential conflicts of interest in this case.
In particular, the European institution explains that its evaluation committee did not identify any conflict of interest that could adversely affect the performance of BlackRock’s duties under the contract and its investment activity, given the nature, context and functions of the study.
The Commission representatives also recall that the general terms and conditions of the signed contract contain standard provisions regarding conflicts of interest. The Commission emphasises that it will not hesitate to terminate the contract if BlackRock does not fulfil them.
They pointed out that the other tenders received did not provide as much detail as BlackRock on how they intended to prevent conflicts of interest.
Among the documents examined by the Ombudsman was a document on the appointment of the Commission's evaluation committee, copies of BlackRock's technical and financial tenders as part of the tendering procedure, a copy of the service contract between the Commission and BlackRock and letters exchanged between the two parties.
“The European Ombudsman's inspection report does not provide any new evidence. The conflicts of interest remain blatant, and we still have legitimate concerns! This is what I am going to explain to the Ombudsman, who is due to deliver its final conclusions within a month”, said Damien Carême (Greens/EFA, France), who referred the case to the Ombudsman. (see EUROPE 12504/20).
The MEP particularly regretted the Commission's lack of clarity on the “alleged physical segregation to prevent any exchange of information within BlackRock (between the investment services and those in charge of the study)” as well as on “the reasons for the abnormally low price proposed by BlackRock”.
See the report: https://bit.ly/35DH2sD (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)