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#Whistleblower: European Court of Auditors must do more to protect those who report fraud within EU institutions

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committee_of_regionsKlaus-Heiner Lehne, the new President of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), has warned that the European institutions have, to a degree, lost the trust of EU citizens. Speaking at the presentation of the EU auditors’ 2015 annual report to the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament, he said that, in the months and years to come, a major challenge for the EU would be to regain that trust. That trust would be easier to regain if the EU institutions did more to support and protect whistleblowers, writes Catherine Feore.

Lehne told MEPs it was clear that there should be reform, but that whatever shape that reform took, it had to be built on solid financial foundations.

“People cannot even begin to trust the EU institutions if they do not believe we are looking after their money properly and keeping a good account of how we are doing that,” said Lehne.

We spoke to Robert McCoy, former Committee of the Regions internal auditor and whistleblower about the new president’s statement. McCoy said: “The intuition of the man and woman in the street is not always to be dismissed out of hand. If they have lost trust in Brussels, its financial management and its fight against waste and fraud, there is probably good reason!

“My own experience of the Court of Auditors has not been – to say the least – particularly reassuring or edifying. When, in my capacity as Committee of the Regions Financial Controller and subsequent Internal Auditor, I reported numerous cases of fraud to Parliament and OLAF, the European Parliament specifically asked the Court of Auditors whether they would attest to the sound financial management of the Committee and confirm my allegations.

“The Court supposedly investigated, and submitted a one-page report which  -astoundingly - gave the Committee of the Regions a clean bill of health and concluded  that there had been no fraud and no breaches of the rules.

“However, the OLAF investigation report painted a quite different picture, upheld all my  allegations  of fraud and even recommended disciplinary proceedings against two  senior Committee of the Regions managers including the then Secretary general.

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“Needless to say no one was disciplined, except for yours truly who was libelled, harassed and constructively dismissed and is still fighting for his reputation and some sort of justice after all these years!

“How can we possibly be surprised that ‘people cannot even begin to trust the EU institutions’ when one hears stories like this?”

This is what former-MEP Michiel Van Hulten said at the time:

161013vanhulten

Robert McCoy to this day has not received an apology for his treatment, nor has he received any compensation for the legal costs he incurred or damages for loss of income, despite court rulings in his favour. If the Court of Auditors wants to reassure the public, they need to do much more to encourage and protect whistleblowers within the EU institutions. Action on this case would be a good start for institutions that have ‘lost the trust of the citizens’.

Background

Robert McCoy

In 2003 Robert McCoy reported fraud and embezzlement at the Committee of the Regions - he was the Internal Auditor. He was on the receiving end of what the European Parliament called individual and institutional harassment. As a result of the Committee's illegal behaviour he spent 12 weeks in hospital before being constructively dismissed. After 13 years, six European Parliament resolutions of support and two ECJ judgements in his favour he  is still fighting for his basic rights for revealing wrongdoing.

European Court of Auditors

The European Court of Auditors is the independent audit institution of the European Union. Its audit reports and opinions are an essential element of the EU accountability chain. Its output is used to hold to account – particularly in the context of the annual discharge procedure – those responsible for managing the EU budget. This is primarily the responsibility of the European Commission, along with the other EU institutions and bodies. But for around 80% of spending – principally agriculture and cohesion – this responsibility is shared with the Member States. The auditors test samples of transactions to provide statistically-based estimates of the extent to which revenue and the different spending areas (groups of policy areas) are affected by error.

EU budgetary spending totalled €145.2 billion in 2015, or around €285 for every citizen. This spending amounts to around 1% of EU gross national income and represents approximately 2% of total public spending in EU Member States.

European Anti-Fraud Office

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is the only EU body mandated to detect, investigate and stop fraud with EU funds. While it has an individual independent status in its investigative function, OLAF is also part of the European Commission. OLAF carries out independent investigations into fraud and corruption involving EU funds, so as to ensure that all EU taxpayers’ money reaches projects that can create jobs and growth in Europe; contributes to strengthening citizens’ trust in the EU Institutions by investigating serious misconduct by EU staff and members of the EU Institutions; develops a sound EU anti-fraud policy.

OLAF can investigate matters relating to fraud, corruption and other offences affecting the EU financial interests concerning: all EU expenditure: the main spending categories are Structural Funds, agricultural policy and rural development funds, direct expenditure and external aid; some areas of EU revenue, mainly customs duties; suspicions of serious misconduct by EU staff and members of the EU institutions.

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