Strasbourg, 11/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The revelations about the internal memo of the Director General of the Commission's internal audit service on the Marta Andreasen case, when still in the post of chief accountant, convinced the Parliamentary committee on budgetary control (Cocobu) on Monday evening to defer to 24 and 25 March the adoption of the draft report by Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal) on the discharge procedure for the 2001 budget (see p.12). The members of this committee also saw fit to invite the author of this note, Jules Muis, to shed some light on this new development in the Andreasen affair on 20 March. Commissioners Neil Kinnock (to whom the note was addressed) and Michaele Schreyer will also be speaking.
The Cocobu members' main reproach to Mr Kinnock is that he failed to inform the college of Commissioners about Mr Muis's opinion when they took the decision to suspend Ms Andreasen from her duties. Questioned by Cocobu on Monday about the nature of the note from Mr Muis, Mr Kinnock explained that on 17 May 2002, he had requested "his professional assessment" of the differences between the DG Budget's document on accounting reform (dating from June 2002) and the work carried out by Ms Andreasen at the time. Mr Kinnock said that he was under no obligation to furnish the other Commissioners with Mr Muis's opinion given its internal, even private, nature. Reading Mr Muis's comments detailing the serious deterioration of the working relations between Ms Andreasen and her hierarchy, and in view of the need to settle the problem quickly, "I concluded that any attempt to solve the crisis by conciliation would risk delaying the presentation of the Commission's communication on accounting reform even further", clarified Mr Kinnock, who also said that he was in no position to judge the quality of the former accountant's work.
Ms Schreyer said that the document prepared by Ms Andreasen seemed "much too short" compared to the June 2001 DG Budget document, and that it contained various unjustified demands (such as the immediate creation of 35 new jobs to counterbalance the shortcomings of the accounting system). After that, she admitted, there was a rapid breakdown in working relations, running the risk of "compromising the correct budgetary execution". Furthermore, the former accountant's public declarations persuaded the Commission that she may have broken internal regulation rules, said Ms Schreyer in justification of opening disciplinary proceedings against her.