Kallas Alleges Defamation, Weighs Court Suit
European Commission Vice President Siim Kallas may open a defamation lawsuit against former European Court Auditor Maarten Engwirda, who accused Kallas of having “systematically sabotaged“ corruption investigations.
"Siim Kallas says the accusations are completely defamatory. We are seriously considering going to court,“ Kallas's secretary Hanna Hinrikus told uudised.err.ee.
As the EU's financial watchdog from 2004 to 2010, Kallas allegedly intimidated auditors into overlooking serious fraud. Engwirda alleges that the current EU commissioner for transport pressured the Court of Auditors to lower their accounting standards, resulting in a “Kremlin-style [...] cover-up culture.”
"These allegations are completely untrue,“ said Emer Traynor, spokeswoman for the European Commission's Audit and Anti-Fraud agency. "The [agency] is a body which is fully independent from any other institution, which is extremely important for its ability to carry out external audits.“
Kallas had developed a system for monitoring audit errors to make the documents more transparent. "I never saw a direct influence,“ said Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control Bart Staes. "What I saw was that Mr. Kallas tried to find procedures like and such as [sic] the traffic light system to make sure that he could tell a positive story about his work, which was not always easy because there was a lot to be done.“
It isn't the first time the EU has been accused of concealing fraud. In 2002, the European Commission fired its head accountant, Marta Andreasen, who said she was pressured into veiling facts about EU spending.