Brussels, 10/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - A letter from the head of the European Commission's internal audit system, Jules Muis, indicating that Marta Andreasen's work of the action plan for implementing the Commission's accounting reform was going in the right direction, could impact upon the discharge procedure underway for the execution of the 2001 budget. At the request of various MEPs, such as Christopher Heaton-Harris (UK Conservative), Commissioner Neil Kinnock has been invited to explain once again why the Commission saw fit to dismiss the former chief accountant. Mr Kinnock will address the Committee on Budgetary Control (Cocobu) in Strasbourg on Monday evening or Tuesday. Various sources indicate that he will explain that the decision to transfer Ms Andreasen in May 2002 was taken because of the harmful consequences to the general process of accounting reform of the worsening working relations between her and the hierarchy (including Commissioner Michaele Schreyer). It was not the assessment of Ms Andreasen's work that led to the Commission's decision.
A Commission spokesperson explained that Mr Muis's note (written before the decision to change Ms Andreasen's post) is in three parts: the first analyses Ms Andreasen's work on the action plan for the implementation of the accountancy plan (and indicates that the project was on the right lines, even though more detail was required on certain points), the second describes the working environment, and the third contains nine recommendations for improvements which would allow the action plan to be presented. The same source said that the work carried out by Ms Andreasen was later taken up by others so that the action plan could be presented in July 2002.