Brussels, 04/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament Budget Committee has given its overall approval for the decision taken by Commissioners Schreyer and Kinnock's decision to dispense with the services of Marta Andreasen, Director for the Budget (see EUROPE 27/28 May page 12). At the Commissioners' request, they were received by the Budget Committee where they defended their decision. Commissioner for the Budget, Michaele Schreyer, stated that since her taking up of her job on 1 January, Marta Andreasen had been dismissed on 24 May because she had not carried out the job for which she had been employed (preparing a communication on reform). Commissioner for Personnel, Neil Kinnock, explained that since she had taken up her post, the accountant had written letters to many people (MEPs, Court of Auditors, Commissioners, President of the Commission), in which she made unsubstantiated accusations of the Commission accounting system for the budget of being vulnerable, as well as the financial regulatory reform. Mr Kinnock explained that given the tone and content of these accusations, the working relationship with her had been completely broken. This deteriorated further when he met her on 23 May to inform her of their decision and to tell her that another position had been found in the financial service, when Ms Andreasen again wrote to MEPs. In this letter she outlined how the accounts had not been managed effectively for over ten years and had remained in the hands of a treasurer without any controls. She also wrote that by refusing to follow her proposals, Commissioner Schreyer would be promoting "a new financial system that would increase the risks of error and/or fraud". Commissioners Schreyer and Kinnock took good care to emphasise that work on the new financial regulation was the joint work of the Commission, Parliament and Council and that the budget was checked every year by the Court of Auditors. Marta Andreasen is expected to be offered a post in DG Administration before a final decision is taken, declared Mr Kinnock, while pointing out that he was going to examine the possibility of launching a disciplinary procedure with regard to Ms Andreasen.
Almost all the members of the Budget Committee were said to have understood the way in which the Commission had reacted. The President of the Budgetary Control Committee, Diemut Theato (EPP, Germany) asked why Ms Andrea had been employed if she had known what duties she would have been expected to carry out. Salvador Garriga (EPP, Spain) and several of his colleagues asked whether the Commission had checked the accusations brought by the official. Mr Kinnock replied that the accusations had always remained very vague. Jutta Haug (PES, Germany) said that the official should have been dismissed earlier. Gianfranco Dell'Alba (Non-aligned, Italy) explained that in his role of rapporteur on financial regulation he had never seen anything in the Commission's proposals that would lead to fraud. Only Chris Heaton-Harris, British Conservative appeared very suspicious, declaring that that there appeared to be many more things in this affair than first it would have seemed.