§ Mr. MarlowTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 19 April,Official Report, column 162, what information he has received about the Commission's internal investigation into the suicide of an Italian official in the tobacco department; and what assessment he has made of this matter. [20460]
§ Mr. JackThe official, a former head of the Commission's tobacco sector, was removed from his post in June 1990 and was subject to internal investigation by the Commission. These investigations ceased on his death in March 1993 and the Commission did not publish a report of its internal investigations. During the investigations, the official was not involved in any market management activities in the tobacco sector.
In 1993, the European Court of Auditors produced a special report of its detailed examination of the operation of the tobacco regime in the period between 1987, when the last such report was produced, and 1992 that is the period prior to the December 1992 reform of the sector. Its report highlighted several areas where procedures needed to be improved. In 1992, the Council of Ministers agreed a number of substantial reforms especially designed to prevent fraud, such as elimination of intervention and export refunds, areas traditionally susceptible to fraud. The changes made met the major concerns identified in the European Court of Auditors report. Furthermore, the Commission is investigating cases of irregularities mentioned in that report and will take action in the form of disallowance of expenditure where controls have not been effective. In this respect, disallowance has already been applied to Greece and Italy to the value of £11 million and £5 million for the EAGGF accounts in 1990 and £23 million and £16 million for the 1991 EAGGF accounts.