European Monetary Institute EMI , European Central Bank ECB: financial year 1998. Report Court of Auditors

The committee adopted the report by Christopher HEATON-HARRIS (EPP-ED, UK) on the Court of Auditors' report. In the light of the Court's criticisms of the ECB, the committee regretted that the Bank had paid an extraordinary bonus of 38% to some of its own employees and called for bonuses in the next 5 years to be in line with its inflationary target, thereby setting an example of wage moderation. The committee also regretted that, despite the ECB's public commitment to cooperate with OLAF, it was preventing the Anti-Fraud Office from carrying out internal investigations, pending the ruling by the European Court of Justice. It called on the ECB to provide an adequate response to the problems identified by the Court of Auditors and to ensure that such situations did not recur. It also urged the Court of Auditors to ensure that its annual report on the operational efficiency of the ECB was published before the September of the year following the year under consideration in the report. �