Fraud-proofing: legislation and contract management

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the report by Herbert BOSCH. (Please refer to the document dated 10/09/02.) Parliament insisted that existing EU legislation should be used to minimise fraud and irregularities; this is not always the case. The Commission is reminded of Council Directive 92/50/EEC on the award of public service contracts, which may be used to exclude a service provider from participation in a contract if the service provider supplies false information or is guilty of tax fraud. Parliament regretted that Eurostat has not used this directive to exclude certain service providers. Finally, an ex-ante assessment of all contracts and budget authorisations is essential if a high level of fraud proofing is to be achieved. It must be made by officials who are different from those responsible for initiating the operation and who are not subordinated to them.�