Brussels, 12/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to open a "supplementary enquiry" into the responsibility of its officials in the poor management of the Institute for Europe-Latin America Relations", Eric Mamer, spokesman for Commissioner Neil Kinnock, said on Thursday. This decision was taken following the Olaf report of 17 October that recommended initiating a disciplinary procedure against officials members of the management of Ielar. On the basis of the report, "the Commission decided to undertake a supplementary enquiry so as to have a more complete picture of the situation and responsibilities", the spokesman commented after an article appeared in the Spanish daily El Pais.
EUROPE recalls that in March 2001, the Commission had decided to cease financing Ielar, following a series of audits and the report by the Court of Auditors demonstrating poor financial management of the Institute. The irregularities notably concerned the accounting of trips or purchases of company cars by its director. The Commission was unable to recover the 4 million euro owed to it, the Institute's accounts having been seized by the Spanish legal authorities.
Founded in 1983 with Community funding, Ielar was responsible for undertaking surveys and analyses on EU/Latin America relations, for the Commission and European Parliament essentially. Body under private Spanish law located in Madrid, it was headed by a German, Rolf Grabendorff. Spain and Germany fought tooth and nail to oppose the closure of Ielar, notably calling for a debate on the subject at the General Affairs Council of August 2000.
The European Parliament and Commission are now blaming each other for not having noted the irregularities committed between 1994 and 1998 in time. Questioned by El Pais, the former Director General for Latin America and Spain's current ambassador to NATO, Juan Prat, declared that the director of Irela, Ralf Grabendorff, "is in any case the only on responsible for any irregularities that may have been committed …. No member of my Directorate General was in a position to control the Institute's accounts, which were controlled each year by an independent audit company. Furthermore, the projects for which Ielar was responsible were approved by the Commission's financial control services". The Spanish daily also questioned MEPs who were part of the Institute's board of advisors. Gerardo Galeote says that his sole responsibility was to define guidelines for Ielar's work programme. "The European Parliament has never had either direct or indirect links with the management of Ielar", declared Jose Ignacio Salafranca. Socialist Manuel Medina Ortega also said he had never noted irregularities when he belonged to Ielar's committee, between 1987 and 1994. The parliamentarians are blaming the Commission, whose payments are said to have been too late and inadequate. For its part, the Commission stresses that it "did not wait for Olaf's report to take measures".