OLAF director rejects MEP’s call for him to resign over Dalligate

The director of the EU's anti-fraud agency OLAF has rejected calls by a German MEP to resign over the handling of the investigation into former EU Commissioner John Dalli.

Giovanni Kessler told Brussels website TheParliament.com that he did nothing wrong to merit a call for him to step down, ostensibly over claims that OLAF employed irregular methods in investigating bribery allegations.

The call for his resignation came from MEP Inge Graessle of the European People's Party, who is a rapporteur on the anti-fraud unit.

Dalli resigned on 16 October 2012 after European Commission president José Manuel Barroso presented him with a covering letter from OLAF, claiming he was aware of an attempt by businessman Silvio Zammit to solicit a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match, to reverse an EU trade ban on snus tobacco, which the company manufactures.

"I have absolutely no intention of resigning... I have done nothing wrong so why resign?" Kessler said.

Graessle claims that OLAF invited third parties to record conversations with parties implicated in the investigation, without their knowledge.

Additionally, a Swedish Match officer told MEP José Bové that OLAF had suggested that they do not tell MEPs during a hearing that Gayle Kimberley, the lobbyist they employed to gain access to Dalli, had lied about meeting the former commissioner in his office where the issue of money was floated by Silvio Zammit.

Bové's calls for a special parliamentary committee of inquiry into Dalligate have been turned down by the European Parliament's bureau of presidents.

In December 2012, Zammit was charged with trading in influence, bribery and money laundering by the Maltese courts, but a recommendation by OLAF to prosecute Kimberley herself was not followed up by the Maltese police.

"The accusations which have been made against OLAF are false and totally unfounded," Kessler said of his accusers. "OLAF is an independent agency. It is transparent and bound by the rule of law and these allegations can be easily countered if necessary."

According to Graessle said, OLAF's supervisory committee pointed out to the European Parliament severe breaches of fundamental rights - "the recording of a telephone conversation and its evaluation without a judicial authorisation, as well as the instigation of third persons to produce such records of telephone conversations. Now the instigation of a third party, in this case Swedish Match, to make a false  statement in front of Parliament adds to this record."

But in a letter to another supervisory committee member, Johan Denolf, the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz criticised Bosch because his comments "led to a number of public reactions by MEPs and press reports in several member states, including in Malta".
"I am sure that you would agree with me that such behaviour by a member of the supervisory committee, of which you are the chairman, is inappropriate and liable to negatively affect the fairness of ongoing judicial procedures in Malta.

"I trust that all actors involved in this situation will act in a responsible manner commensurate with the gravity of the situation."

TheParliament.com also reported that Schulz said in his letter that he did all he could within his power to ensure confidentiality was respected - since the OLAF report remains under wraps - saying this was in the "overriding public interest of protecting the proper administration of justice".

His intervention drew a strong reaction from Graessle, the EPP's spokesperson on the budgetary control committee which oversees OLAF. "It is astonishing that the president of parliament should get involved in this way. He seems to be more interested in fundamental rights issues rather than the protection of the law. This is unacceptable."