MEPs sharpen knives for OLAF director

MEPs in the European Parliament's committee for budgetary control are expected to mount a new challenge to OLAF, the embattled anti-fraud agency, when its annual report is presented on Tuesday.

With controversy surrounding the dismissal of European Commissioner for Health John Dalli and the ongoing questions about the way OLAF's Giovanni Kessler handled the investigation, MEPs will be demanding answers on outstanding matters of transparency and lobbying rules.

Earlier this week, fiery MEP Inge Graessle (EPP) called for the suspension of Kessler, the Italian director of OLAF, in the wake of allegations that he took a witness in the Dalli investigation for lunch and a glass of wine after a seven-hour interrogation.

Graessle is also the rapporteur on a regulation concerning investigations conducted by OLAF.

"If it is true that the investigators took the witness [Gayle Kimberley] out for lunch for an hour and a half, drinking wine, and then compelled her to sign the statement in a drunken state... then these are serious professional and ethical shortcomings, showing a bias from the start to find evidence that did not exist.

"It makes the OLAF investigation unit look ridiculous and damages the EU's reputation seriously," Graessle said.

Kimberley was a lawyer employed by Swedish Match to gain access to John Dalli. She is now a witness to the charges brought against Silvio Zammit, a businessman accused of having solicited a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match in a bid to reverse anti-tobacco laws that Dalli was spearheading.

Green MEPs José Bové and Bart Staes said that when OLAF's supervisory committee presents its report on the functioning of OLAF to the budgetary control committee, this might have serious implications for the Dalli case. Bové said the statements made by Kimberley in court raised new questions on the methods of inquiry being applied by OLAF and in particular by Giovanni Kessler.

"If the hearing of Johann Denolf, chair of OLAF's supervisory committee, confirms these worrying allegations, the European Parliament should ask itself if the leadership of the EU's anti-fraud agency needs to be replaced."

OLAF has defended the procedures adopted, saying all persons interviewed were given the opportunity to review the interview record and to make corrections. "After the first interview, which had lasted for several hours, Ms Kimberley was offered a short lunch on the same premises at which the interview had taken place, while the record of the interview was being completed. She was given the opportunity to review the draft record and she amended it."

Graessle has already called for the resignation of Kessler over allegations by members of the OLAF supervisory committee that the anti-fraud agency encouraged third parties to illegally record conversations of subjects in the Dalligate investigation.

A report published earlier this week by the United Kingdom's House of Lords that looked into fraud in the EU budget claimed that OLAF has had a "significant breakdown" in relations with its supervisory committee - the panel designed to ensure that fraud investigators work independently of external pressure. The report found that the situation between OLAF and the five-member supervisory committee "had progressed... to a point where the relationship has broken down into open hostility".

Also, on Wednesday 17 April, the European Parliament voted in favour of an investigation into the Dalli case and accusations by the supervisory committee that OLAF had breached certain fundamental rights. The transparency amendments to the resolution, moved by MEPs Graessle and Staes, were not supported by socialist MEPs, including Maltese members John Attard-Montalto and Joseph Cuschieri.

Since leaving the island to pursue court action against the European Commission for unfair dismissal and libel proceedings against Swedish Match in Brussels, Dalli was reported to be unable to face "psychosocial exposure."

The former commissioner, who returned to Malta on 6 April, has declined to comment on the political repercussions facing OLAF.

Dalli simply told MaltaToday yesterday that his health had improved.

But the jury is still out as to whether he will be charged based on OLAF's allegations that he was aware Silvio Zammit, his one-time political canvasser, was soliciting the bribe from Swedish Match.

Earlier this week, newly-appointed Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit said that the Dalligate investigation was still open and that he would speak to Dalli in good time. "I know that John Dalli is in Malta. I intend to speak to him, but in good time: these investigations need their time and this case is still open."

Silvio Zammit has been charged in court with bribery, trading in influence and money laundering. Zammit's defence counsel claims that the OLAF report, which has not been published, recommends that Kimberley also be prosecuted.