18 April 2003
The European Union's investigation into fraud in the Committee of the Regions, the body that represents Europe's local and regional government, is a 'storm in a teacup', a leading member claimed this week.
Ken Bodfish, Labour leader of Brighton and Hove Council, told Public Finance that the allegations were based largely on technical breaches of finance rules, with just a 'handful' of deliberate frauds.
The EU's anti-fraud office, Olaf, launched an investigation last week after a number of complaints from the European Parliament.
Among the allegations is expenses fraud, which includes some of the committee's 222 members claiming for non-existent meetings and fictitious airline journeys. According to the reports, one senior CoR member claimed additional daily allowances of £6,850 after arranging fake meetings.
Bodfish confirmed that there had been concerns about false meetings but stressed that the complaints related to events in 2001.
The investigation also follows the Parliament's refusal to approve the CoR's 2001 accounts over concerns of poor financial management.
'This is a very serious matter, but we do have to put this in context,' Bodfish said. 'The sums of money involved are very small and 70 of the complaints relate to technical breaches where members can't produce boarding passes with their airline tickets. Most of these have already been cleared up.'
A list of names has already been passed to the Parliament for scrutiny. Bodfish claimed that none of the 40-plus UK delegation was among them, although some may have been involved in the technical breaches.
The investigation is likely to tarnish the CoR, which is already seen in some quarters as a costly nuisance. The committee, set up in 1994, has few powers and its main role is to produce comments on the impact of the EU on the regions.
There have been suggestions that the fraud investigation was politically motivated. 'Some members of the European Parliament are threatened by the existence of a committee representing local and regional government,' Bodfish said.
'This is exactly the kind of story the critics want. The CoR can't afford this kind of publicity – it distracts from our work. I hope this investigation is concluded speedily and any members found to be guilty of deliberate fraud expelled.'
PFapr2003
