European Parliament releases old audit on former system for MEPs’ assistants

The investigation was carried out by the parliament’s internal auditor, Robert Galvin, in 2008 specifically into a sample of allowances paid to MEPs in 2004-2005. They were entitled to over €200,000 to pay assistants and office expenses.

There were no names in his report, but he gave examples of how 17 MEPs were making obviously fraudulent claims such as for non-existent offices, employing relatives as assistants, paying money into companies they controlled, and pretending to hand over big lump sums to assistants that almost certainly diverted back to them.

The report pinpointed a number of weaknesses in the system that existed at the time. The entire system for employing MEPs’ assistants has since been replaced and steps have been taken where necessary to recover sums unduly paid.

Parliament will not appeal against the decision by the EU General Court on 7 June 2011 that the report should be made available to a citizen who had requested it.

The EP scrapped the system entirely and replaced with a new one with effect from the 2009 elections.

MEPs assistants in Brussels now have a formal EU statute and are employed directly by the EP administration. Assistants in the MEPs’ countries of origin are paid via officially qualified paying agents, who ensure their contracts meet all national law requirements and that tax and social security arrangements are properly handled.  Up to a quarter of the allowance can be used for non-staff services from companies (such as legal advice or website design) and this too is paid via official qualified paying agents.

None of the Parliamentary Assistance Allowance is paid to or via the MEP themselves. It is a budget of €21,209 per month held by the parliament, from which the costs of employing assistants are deducted as they are paid out.  Any unspent funds remain with Parliament.

MEPs may no longer have close relatives among their staff, though there is a transitional period to 2014 for those individuals already employed in the previous parliamentary term.