92001E1513

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1513/01

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(21 May 2001)

Subject: OLAF establishment plan

The 2001 budget substantially increased the overall number of category A posts available to OLAF and altered the breakdown between established and temporary posts.

The number of established posts was reduced from 83 to 53, and the number of temporary posts was increased from 15 to 61, the budgetary authority's intention being to make it easier to recruit experienced public prosecutors and officials from the Member States' relevant investigation services, preferably to temporary posts.

The reduction in established posts was also meant to enable OLAF to part with officials transferred from UCLAF but not possessing the qualifications and experience required for working in OLAF.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. How many officials and temporary staff did OLAF employ at 1 January 2001? How many officials and temporary staff did it employ at 1 May 2001?

2. When was the procedure provided for in Article 41 of the Staff Regulations opened so as to assign officials affected by the reduction in established posts non-active status?

3. How many officials are on the list drawn up pursuant to Article 41(2), and in what grades are they? When were they/will they be assigned non-active status?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(24 July 2001)

The budgetary authority approved 224 posts for the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in the 2000 budget, of which 83 were A category permanent posts and 15 were temporary posts.

As at 31 December 2000 OLAF employed a staff of 153, of whom 71 were category A officials.

When the 2001 budget was approved, the number of posts for OLAF was increased to 300. The number of category A permanent posts was reduced from 83 to 53, i.e. below the number of category A officials employed at the time. The total number of A posts at OLAF, including temporary posts, was increased from 98 to 114.

The number of permanent posts in the Commission as a whole was also increased. This is particularly true of category A posts.

The Commission takes the view that the conditions governing the application of Article 41 of the Staff Regulations to OLAF officials have not been met.

According to Article 41, an official having non-active status is one who has become supernumerary by reason of reduction in the number of posts in his institution. Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 and Council Regulation (Euratom) No 1074/1999 of 25 May 1999 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)(1) states that the posts allocated to the Office must be listed in an Annex to the Commission's establishment plan.

Given that OLAF is not a Community institution, the Commission takes the view that Article 41 does not apply either to OLAF itself or to the Commission as a whole, in so far as the number of the latter's posts was not reduced in the 2001 budget.

(1) OJ L 136, 31.5.1999.