MEPs call for OLAF chief to quit
Anti-fraud agency denies allegations that witness was encouraged to lie during Maltese investigation into John Dalli.
Members of the European Parliament have called for the resignation of Giovanni Kessler, head of the EU’s anti-fraud agency, OLAF, over allegations of irregularities in the investigation into John Dalli, former European commissioner for health and consumer policy.
At a press conference yesterday (21 March) at which there were calls for a special committee in the European Parliament to investigate the affair, French Green MEP Jose Bové said that the public affairs director at Swedish Match – the tobacco company at the centre of the allegations – had claimed OLAF asked a witness to lie to Maltese investigators and the European Parliament and about a meeting with Dalli.
In October, OLAF found that Dalli was aware that a Maltese businessman had solicited Swedish Match for payment in exchange for influencing legislation on tobacco.
The Commission has always said that Dalli’s resignation was a cut-and-dried case of impropriety, but there has been confusion over exactly which rules Dalli violated. MEPs have tried to get answers, but they have complained that OLAF and the European Commission are not co-operating.
In a recorded conversation, Swedish Match’s public affairs director, Johan Gabrielsson, told Bové that the lobbyist who arranged the meetings with the Maltese businessman, Gayle Kimberley, had lied to OLAF about a second meeting she held with Dalli. She had in fact only held one meeting with the commissioner, as Dalli himself maintained.
When OLAF learned that its report, which mentioned two meetings, was incorrect – after Dalli had resigned – the agency asked Swedish Match to stick to the original story when speaking to Maltese investigators and MEPs, Bové said.
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Bové also said that an investigation by the OLAF supervisory committee has shown that the agency recorded conversations with witnesses without their knowledge or judicial authorisation, something the agency is not permitted to do. Kessler was aware of these decisions, he claimed.
However following Bové’s comments, Swedish Match said the MEP was distorting Gabrielsson’s words. “At no point in time has OLAF put pressure on us or insinuated that we should alter our views of the events in either direction,” said a spokeman for the company. “Several statements made at the press conference were remarkable twists of the conversation between Mr Bové and the representative of Swedish Match.”
OLAF also denied that it attempted to influence the evidence given by any witness, and denied that it illegally recorded telephone conversations.
The agency said it “regrets that selected items of information from confidential reports have been disclosed inaccurately, out of context and in a distorted fashion in an attempt to create a misleading impression of the facts”.
In response to the new allegations, Ingeborg Grässle, a centre-right German MEP, called for Kessler to resign. She said there had been a series of irregularities in the investigation. “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,” she said.
Grässle also complained that a report on the case has been delivered to the presidents of the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council, but has not been made available to MEPs. “The presidents have to stop covering up for the breaches, everything has to be put on the table now”, said Grässle.