OLAF denies supervisory committee’s former president’s resignation

The EU's anti-fraud office OLAF has denied reports first appearing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the former president of the OLAF supervisory board Christiaan Timmermans had resigned as member over misgivings he might have had on the John Dalli investigation.

Until Wednesday evening, it was believed that Timmermans had resigned because OLAF had failed to "properly inform the board about the details of Dalli's alleged misconduct before handing the information to the Maltese authorities," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

But OLAF has denied the resignation and that Timmermans remains a member on the supervisory committee.

"OLAF has been informed during the regular monthly meeting of the OLAF supervisory committee on Monday 22 October that the committee has elected a new President, Mr J. Denolf. The former President, Mr C. Timmermans, will remain as member of the committee," OLAF spokesperson Johan Wullt said.

"After recent press reports, President Denolf has informed the Director-General of OLAF, Mr G. Kessler, that the change of President has nothing to do with any actions of OLAF.

"OLAF has finalised its report on the Dalli case and delivered it to the relevant authorities. The change of President of the Supervisory Committee can in no way change the contents or conclusions of that report."

According to FAZ, the reason for the alleged resignation was due to the fact that 'incriminating documents' were passed on to Malta's Afcos office, the OLAf interlocutor, without first, as required, being vetted by the supervisory panel.

OLAF declared on Sunday that it passed on the documents only after the supervisory committee was informed and given access to the documents. But FAZ reports that only a fraction, 10 of 40 pages, of the documents were handed over.

On this basis, the supervisory committee appears not to have been in a legally binding position to confirm in advance the transfer of records as being in full respect of Dalli's rights in terms of the investigation

OLAF's supervisory committee monitors the implementation of OLAF's investigative function. Among its five-man board is Rita Schembri, the director-general of the Internal Audit and Investigations Department inside the Office of the Prime Minister. On its part, the IAID is the interlocutor of OLAF in Malta through its Anti-Fraud Co-ordinating Service (AFCOS), which was also involved in the OLAF investigations into John Dalli as early as 5 July 2012.

FAZ also reported that the European People's Party MEP Ingeborg Grässle, who has been conducting a parliamentary review of OLAF, also raised her own doubts as to the impartiality of Rita Schembri, the IAID director who sits on the supervisory board. This observation could not be confirmed in other corresponding reports.

John Dalli resigned as EU health commissioner on 16 October over an OLAF investigation which claims to have unambiguous circumstantial evidence that he was aware of an attempt by one of his canvassers to solicit a bribe from Swedish Match, producers of snuff tobacco snus, to reverse an export ban that has been in force since 1992. Dalli has denied the accusations.