Brussels, 09/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) announced on Monday evening that it had forwarded to the public prosecutor of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg information concerning "possible fraud" regarding contracts concluded between Eurostat and private companies.
OLAF states in a press release that the information forwarded to the Luxembourg prosecution Office (where Eurostat is installed) was obtained during two investigations carried out into "matters liable to result in criminal proceedings". An OLAF spokesman specified that investigations "do not concern the question of the reliability of the Eurostat data". On the Commission's side, it is only pointed out that, out of the 663 matters concluded by OLAF in 2001, only 13 concerned internal Commission affairs (2%). Internal investigations are said to have concerned a total of EUR 21 million, that is, 3.7% of the total amount of the cases dealt with this year.
Investigations could be linked to the matter of a contract between Eurostat and the private company "Eurogramme". A report by the internal Eurostat auditor carried out in 2000 showed that there was a difference between the quality of work achieved by Eurogramme and the price set out in the contract. Eurostat management had finally decided to pay a little more than what the auditor's report had recommended, given the difficult working conditions facing the private company.