Ahead of a hearing of OLAF's Director-General Giovanni Kessler before the European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee this Wednesday in the wake of the resignation of former European Commissioner John Dalli, the EPP Group Spokeswoman on the committee, Inge Grässle MEP, has called for a far-reaching reform of the EU's anti-fraud office. Grässle, who is the European Parliament's Rapporteur for the reform of OLAF's legal base, said: "The Dalli case has brought to light serious mismanagement of OLAF. Europe's anti-fraud office must stop its navel-gazing and cowboy style and start working again for the interests of Europe's citizens. OLAF needs a fresh start with a new Director-General at the helm. In order to ensure better control, access of the supervisory committee to all closed case files is necessary”, Grässle said.

MEPs in the Budgetary Control Committee are expected to ask questions about the management of OLAF's investigations at the hearing of Giovanni Kessler, scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 10.00 hrs, following severe criticism of the conduct of OLAF's investigation in the Dalli case by its own supervisory committee which highlighted serious misconduct and breaches of fundamental rights in a recent activity report.

Figures provided by OLAF itself show that in 2012, the anti-fraud office spent a disproportionate part of its manpower on the Dalli case. While 365 out of a total of 465 investigations OLAF led last year did not produce a result, almost 8% of the total number of interviews OLAF investigators conducted with suspects in all of 2012 were made in connection with the Dalli case (5 out of 66). Similarly, 6 of the total 108 witness interviews conducted by OLAF investigators the same year were in connection with the Dalli case.

"These figures suggest a gross misallocation of resources. While OLAF's Director-General personally led the investigation against John Dalli, he must answer the question whether this came at the expense of regular investigations into fraud with EU money. The European Commission must push the reset button and suspend Director-General Kessler in order to make sure OLAF fulfils its tasks once again", Gräßle said.

Information to the media: The European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee will hear OLAF Director-General Giovanni Kessler at a special hearing on Wednesday 29 May at 10.00 hrs in the European Parliament, Room A3E2.

For further information:

Ingeborg GRÄSSLE MEP, Phone: +32 (0)2 2845868

Lasse Böhm, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Phone: +32 484 656897

Note to Editors

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 269 Members and 3 Croatian Observer Members.