MEPs face expenses inquiry

Published: Thursday, 21 February 2008, 10:55AM

Anti-fraud chiefs have launched an inquiry into "outrageous" abuses of MEPs' expenses.

The EU's independent investigation team was called in by Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies after he saw a secret report of a random audit in the European Parliament.

Mr Davies said: "This report is dynamite and makes the Derek Conway affair at Westminster look like small change."

He is one of a group of MEPs on the European Parliament's Budget Control Committee who were allowed to look at the report this week - but only under surveillance and without taking notes or copies.

The committee members were also supposed to sign a confidentiality agreement.

But Mr Davies did not, and he revealed the auditors' catalogue of alleged abuses of payments for MEPs' office staff. The total involved is about £100 million for the audited period between late 2004 and early 2006.

Each MEP is given about £130,000 a year to pay the salaries and social security costs of employing assistants.

"When I looked at this report my first reaction was to laugh at the outrageous extent of the abuses" said Mr Davies.

"Then that feeling turned to anger and the realisation that the police or the anti-fraud people should be looking at this."

Franz Bruner, Director-General of Olaf, the EU's internal anti-fraud squad, said he was launching an inquiry and had demanded to see the audit report by the end of this week.

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