Hearing of Siim Kallas (administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud)

Thibault Lesénécal

Informations

• Publié par: Zewyor
• Nombre de lectures: 67
• Langue: English

Extrait

Hearing of Siim Kallas (administrative affairs,

audit and anti-fraud)

Speaking at the last of the hearings of the 24 Commissioners-designate, Estonian Siim

KALLAS described himself as the "Triple A" Commissioner, as he was responsible for

Administration, Audit and Anti-fraud. In his opening remarks before the European

Parliament Budgetary Control Committee, Mr Kallas set out his views on personnel

management, better controls on the implementation of the EU budget and ways to

improve the fight against fraud.

Mr Kallas acknowledged that "

the image of the public administration in the European

Union needs improvement

" and that further work needed to be done to create a "

public

perception that money entrusted to the EU is well managed and spent

". Officials at all

levels should be selected only on the basis of professionalism, individual merit and

ability. "

Appointments to top jobs as political deals

" are "

old fashioned"

, he said, adding

that he wanted "

to further develop a system (…) that works for - and not against - the

ability of staff to deliver results

". He would try to eliminated parallel organisation and

lack of coordination. As regards whistleblowers, Mr Kallas said "

we have to create a

climate where criticism is welcome and addressed in a constructive way

", so that

reforms would be stimulated from within rather than as a reaction to outside pressure.

Other issues Mr Kallas mentioned were his intention to promote e-government and

improve security at the Commission.

On the audit part of his tasks, Mr Kallas said he aimed to work towards finally obtaining

approval from the European Court of Auditors for the way payments from the EU

budget have been made. As regards controls within the Commission itself, Mr Kallas

said that internal auditing should be seen as a "

confidential opportunity to freely discuss

how things can be done better

", and not as a means to minimise problems identified or

make sensationalist revelations.

On the fight against fraud, Mr Kallas remarked that over 80% of the EU budget is spent

in the Member States and that therefore "

excellent legislation and strong and efficient

cooperation with and between the Member States"

are required. The fight against fraud

should be concentrated on those areas "

where the big money is: on customs,

agriculture and structural funds

". Mr Kallas also remarked that unfortunately the OLAF

anti-fraud office had not achieved the goal of creating more trust among the general

public that financial matters are handled properly by the EU. "

I want OLAF to become a

pillar for confidence, and not a subject of suspicions and speculations

", he said.

Finally, Mr Kallas assured MEPs that he intended to share information on the state of

the Commission's reform, the control systems and financial management in the EU as

often and as much as possible with them.

Commission reform

Asked by José POMÉS RUIZ (EPP-ED, ES) what his opinion was of the results of the

administrative reforms introduced by outgoing Commissioner Neil Kinnock, Mr Kallas

said that the Commission had in fact changed dramatically over the past five years -

such as with the periodic rotation of top level jobs - and that he saw a smooth

implementation of the reforms as his main challenge. Nevertheless, he would study

possible further simplifications of rules. Answering a concern raised by Manuel

MEDINA ORTEGA (PES, ES) that in recent months the Commission had suffered a

measure of paralysis as a result of the plethora of new rules and controls, Mr Kallas

said the rules introduced were basically well-balanced. However, he promised to have

a close look at this. Addressing Brigitte DOUAY (PES, FR), the Commissioner-

designate said his priorities would be a realistic work programme, activity-based

management and a system that was as non-bureaucratic as possible. In reply to a

question by Edit HERCZOG (PES, HU) Mr Kallas said he wanted to see "

merit first"

but

that geographical balance should still be kept in mind when recruiting officials to the

Institutions.

"I do admit that in certain areas the resources are limited"

, was the Commissioner-

designate's reply to Alexander STUBB (EPP-ED, FI), who was interested to know if the

Commission budget was big enough for all its tasks. Mr Kallas called for more

emphasis to be put on security, staff training and information technology.

In reply to questions by Nils LUNDGREN (IND/DEM, SE) and Hans-Peter MARTIN

(IND, AT) on the protection of whistleblowers, the Commissioner-designate said he was

surprised by the sensitivity and high profile of this subject. He stressed he wanted to

work towards a system which would be so open that whistleblowing would be

unnecessary, although he did acknowledge the need for guarantees for whistleblowers,

if only as part of this open and transparent system. Mr Kallas expressed his willingness

to discuss the further development of rules on this matter with MEPs. He did stress that

the rules had already changed since the Van Buitenen and Andreasen cases. In

general he felt that "

the message should be tackled and not the messenger

".

Speaking of whistleblowers, Mr Kallas answered a question by Paul VAN BUITENEN

(Greens/EFA, NL) on selecting senior officials for the Commission. Mr Van Buitenen

was worried that such officials were chosen on political grounds rather than

competence and that EU taxpayers' money was

being wasted in costly selection

procedures that were just a show. Mr Kallas promised that during his term "

there would

be no parachuting to the administration

".

Internal audits

Apologising to Herbert BÖSCH (PES, AT) for not having replied to a letter sent to him

earlier, Mr Kallas said that the latest report by the Commission's internal auditor Jules

Muis was being followed-up by the audit progress committee. These reports would in

future clearly indicate what changes would be needed and how these should be

measured. Mr Kallas proved unwilling to submit the internal audit report to MEPs, but

said that the Internal Audit Service's annual activity report would be available to

Parliament in an improved form. Mr Kallas also declared himself willing to inform

Parliament's rapporteur regularly on relevant issues.

External audit

Jan MULDER (ALDE, NL) mentioned the unwillingness by the European Court of

Auditors to indicate in its annual report the percentage of irregularities found in the

implementation of the EU budget. He proposed that the sector(s) - and possibly the

Member State(s) - known to be the most problematic should be targeted and payments

stopped if necessary. Mr Kallas stressed that 80% of the EU budget was managed in

the Member States and that he would try to convince the Member States that the

present situation was unsatisfactory. He pointed out that the Commission in some

cases did stop payments and then recovered money. In reply to a question by Reimer

BÖGE (EPP-ED, DE), Mr Kallas added that some Member States were more

cooperative than others and that a system should be created with the Court of Auditors

in order to get a better picture of what is going on.

Asked by Mr Böge whether a rationalisation of the Commission's services was not due,

in view of the proliferation of external agencies, Mr Kallas said that it was mainly the

Member States' wish to have an agency in their own country which led to additional

structures and duplication, something he was not very keen on.

OLAF

Several Members of Parliament were worried that OLAF was not working well enough.

Attention focused on a Commission plan to include the secretariat of the anti-fraud

office in the Commission's own personnel. Mr Kallas said that he was not aware of all

the details and fine-tuning of this proposal but his "

general intention was to keep OLAF

as independent as possible"

.

In reply to a question by Inés AYALA SENDER (PES, ES) on how to foster public

confidence, Mr Kallas said

"we cannot avoid unpleasant surprises but the question is

how we handle them"

.

H

e

w

a

n

t

e

d

O

L

A

F

"

to be known by the EU citizens as the

Institution of trust"

.

Accountability to Parliament

In reply to a question by Umberto GUIDONI (EUL/NGL, IT) Mr Kallas said he saw no

reason for changing the code of conduct for Commissioners, by which "

we lay our fates

in the hands of the Commission president

" and which lays down what constitutes

mismanagement, etc.

Answering a question by James ELLES (EPP-ED, UK) about the DAS ('declaration of

assurance as to the reliability of accounts and the legality and regularity of the

underlying transactions') the Commissioner-designate said that

"giving a positive DAS

to the European Parliament"

would remain his goal. However, as in the banking world,

which Mr Kallas said he knew well from his previous role, he said that it was impossible

to guarantee the legal nature of thousands of transactions. He called again on the

Member States to take responsibility for the use of agricultural and structural fund

expenditure.

Structural Funds

Prompted by a question by Anne JENSEN (ALDE, DK) Mr Kallas said he shared the

view of the Commissioner-designate for the budget, Mrs Grybauskaite, that a structural

fund ceiling of 4% of the GNP would be more of a constraint for poorer than for richer

countries.

Court case

Mr Kallas was asked by Bart STAES (Greens/EFA, BE) about allegations of

mishandling 10 million dollars in an investment scheme when he was president of the

Estonian Central Bank. Mr Staes stressed that Mr Kallas had been acquitted in court

but he wanted to know why the central bank had gone along with an investment

scheme promising a 300% return per year, which was proposed by someone with a

highly dubious reputation. Mr Kallas replied that the Estonian Central Bank had not

gone along with this scheme, that all this had happened ten years ago, that an

extensive investigation into the case had lasted for four years and that he had said all

there was to say about it.

[Mr Kallas goes into this case in some depth in his written

answers, ed.]

He denied he had ever met Abraham Sher in person or that he had sent

his special advisor Urmas Kaju to Switzerland to study the details of the scheme.

11.10.2004

Committee on Budgetary Control

Chair: Szabolcs FAZAKAS (PES, HU)

Press enquiries:

Marjory van den Broeke - tel. [phone]

email:

[e-mail]

Leena Linnus - tel. [phone]

email:

[e-mail]

Elina Viilup - tel [phone] email:

[e-mail]