MEPs to reveal pay details amid suspicion

ALL MEPs have until the end of May to make a full disclosure of the allowances they claimed to pay assistants after suspicions of fraud.

A report, that the parliament has refused to make public, has been referred to the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF.

All MEPs are given an allowance of up to €160,000 a year to pay for assistants, but a check on the claims of 167 MEPs made during October 2004 found what are believed to be irregularities.

According to a summary of the report leaked to the media by a Dutch MEP, money had been paid into MEPs’ own bank accounts, to family members or to companies that appeared to have no role other than to receive the money.

In one case, the report claims, an MEP had apparently paid an assistant a Christmas bonus worth 19 times the assistant’s monthly salary.

Following public pressure, president of the parliament Hans-Gert Pottering and members of all the political groups launched a review of the assistants system and ordered new rules to be drawn up.

They will investigate claims for the €140 million-a-year allowances system for 2004 and 2005, although lax or non-existent rules on how it is spent mean many MEPs will be able to say they broke no rules. The decision to review the whole structure was welcomed by Paul Van Buitenen, the Dutch MEP who broke the rules and made a five-page summary of the confidential report drawn up by an internal accountant at the parliament.

Mr Van Buitenen, whose whistle-blowing in 1999 helped bring down the entire European Commission, claims senior officials and members of parliament have known of the scams for years, but did little about it.

No MEPs are named in the report that also apparently refers to abuse of other expenses and travel costs.

The parliament’s presidents have asked the secretary general to ensure internal rules on paying assistants are adhered to and asked him to draw up new rules, along with an improved contract for staff while allowing members to recruit their own assistants and decide their salary levels.

They have also asked the parliament’s own working party on MEP’s salaries, assistants and pension funds to assess as a matter of urgency the operation of the existing rules in detail, and make proposals for changes in the rules if they are needed.

The presidents also agreed the list of expenses and allowances paid to MEPS, including staff, general, travel and office allowances, will be put on the European Parliament’s website.

A Fianna Fáil spokesperson said the party’s MEPs comply at all times with the rules and regulations of the European Parliament and fully support the official publication of the internal auditor’s report into the operation of MEP allowances.

Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott said she was delighted the parliament is going to overhaul the assistant system. “It is a step in the direction of the long-awaited assistants’ statute which I would like to see introduced, and I hope it will bring it closer. I was elected to be an MEP and a voice for my constituents. I have no desire to be an employer,” she said.