EU corruption case sparks fresh questions
Fresh questions are emerging on the scale of the corruption scandal hitting the European Commission last week, with a German magazine reporting that Brussels continued to grant projects to a shady Italian businessman despite suspicions of fraud against him.
Stern weekly wrote on Wednesday (4 April) that the commission on several occasions hired firms belonging to Angelo Troiano - who has been arrested on corruption charges - even after the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF had in 2004 launched investigations into cases involving the Italian entrepreneur.
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Mr Troiano was arrested by Belgian authorities last Wednesday (28 March) along with two fellow Italians, European Commission official Giancarlo Ciotti and European Parliament assistant Sergio Tricarico.
The three are the key suspects in a corruption scandal which allegedly saw the commission's Mr Ciotti pocket bribes in return for rewarding Mr Troiano's business imperium with contracts to equip and secure commission buildings in India and Albania. Mr Tricarico is suspected of having played a middleman's role in the fraud scheme.
The arrests were the result of a years-long investigation of both the Belgian authorities and OLAF, a quasi-independent EU body which says it started to look into the case in 2004.
But during the lengthy OLAF investigations, Brussels continued to grant equipment and security contracts to Mr Troiano's companies, according to Stern.
As late as November 2006, Mr Troiano's firm ATR scooped a €1.2 million deal for equipping a kindergarten ordered by the commission's Office for Infrastructure and Logistics Brussels (OIB), a unit falling under the responsibility of anti-fraud commissioner Siim Kallas, the magazine writes.
Among further projects, a company linked to Mr Troiano was also hired by the OIB for a €9.25 million painting, bricklaying and floor covering job in January 2006.
And Brussels' external relations department headed by commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner hired Mr Troiano's EBI Security for securing offices in South Korea and Serbia in late 2004 - after the launch of OLAF investigations.
Commissioner Kallas' spokesman explained Brussels' long-standing dealings with Mr Troiano by saying that the suspicions against the Italian could not be spread "internally" in the commission as this could hamper the "ongoing investigations" into the corruption case.
"Maximum discretion and secrecy" was therefore required, the spokesman said, adding that "no irregularities" were found in any of the jobs done by Troiano companies for Mr Kallas' department after investigations had started.
Commission officials also indicated that it would be difficult to exclude a company from commission jobs on the ground of "suspicions" only "unless these suspicions were proven."
Four eyes
Meanwhile, questions are also surfacing on the details of the deal involving commission buildings in India and Albania - which sparked last week's arrests.
A commission spokeswoman confirmed that the signing of contracts always requires "four eyes" - which suggests that at least one more commission official apart from the arrested Giancarlo Ciotti must have seen the dodgy contract with the Troiano firm.
But other officials were quick to add that this does not necessarily mean broader involvement of commission staff in the fraud case.
"Fraud often means deceit," one commission source said. "Other commission officials [than Mr Ciotti] may well have been deceived."