Brussels, 09/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The German courts (Bochum Prosecutor's Office) arrested, on 4 December, a senior EU official accused of having misappropriated Community funds earmarked for the supply of electricity in Kosovo, it was announced by the Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which had opened an investigation on the matter in April this year (see EUROPE of 3 May). The suspect is a German official responsible for questions relating to the production and distribution of electricity within the European team of the United Nations Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK). OLAF has said it has contributed to recovery of $3.2 million out of the $4.2 million in EU funds that were misappropriated and transferred to a bank account in Gibraltar. The official is said to have sought to transfer the money from Gibraltar to Belize, but that this attempt was thwarted, OLAF is pleased to note. OLAF is now seeking to obtain not only the recovery of the missing one million dollars but also access to the bank accounts involved.
MEP Olivier Dupuis (Lista Bonino) states in a press release that this information "raises new questions such as whether the work of OLAF is as good and effective as it should be". He said he had information whereby fraud and embezzlement are not limited to the Gibraltar case but "also concern major contracts linked to supplies in the energy sector". "The Council, the Commission and Parliament would be well advised to see this affair as sounding the alarm! The policy of putting off the decision on the final status of Kosovo and the maintaining of status quo indefinitely is a powerful incentive for misappropriations, fraud and embezzlement of this kind", Mr Dupuis concluded.