The head of EU’s anti fraud office (OLAF), Giovanni Kessler, yesterday defended the conclusions of his investigation into former European Commissioner John Dalli, saying Maltese police’s decision not to charge him with a criminal offence changed nothing.
If investigators were to fear political reactions with consequences for their careers, they would be unable to carry out their work independently
He once again resisted calls for his resignation arguing that his agency could not be put in a position of fearing investigating high ranking politicians.
Replying to a series of questions from members of the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee, Mr Kessler said while OLAF always maintained Mr Dalli’s presumption of innocence and declared from the start it had found no criminal evidence against him, its probe uncovered irregularities by the Commissioner and “put the Commission in a position to draw its own political and administrative conclusions.” Mr Dalli resigned from the Commission in October following the presentation of the OLAF report to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
“OLAF gathered evidence showing that irregular meetings of the former Commissioner Dalli took place with representatives of the tobacco industry (August 2010 and January 2012) with the irregular involvement of a person, a Maltese entrepreneur (Silvio Zammit) close to him,” Mr Kessler told MEPs. On the critical issue of the meetings and the participants, Mr Kessler said: “OLAF has collected evidence that the Maltese entrepreneur close to Mr Dalli subsequently asked for a bribe in order to influence the EU legislative process, using the name of the Commissioner and benefitting from his privileged position.”
Mr Kessler said the evidence also shows that Mr Dalli had been in contact with Mr Zammit “at critical moments of the illicit negotiations”; met with him immediately before a bribe was asked for, and kept contact with him immediately after a second request for a bribe was made.”
“These contacts (between Mr Dalli and Mr Zammit) continued after the investigation was initiated, notably after key interviews and witnesses and persons concerned,” he said.
Quizzed on the recent declaration by the new Maltese Commissioner of Police, Peter Paul Zammit that there was not enough evidence to charge Mr Dalli in court, Mr Kessler said there was nothing new in this as OLAF has always stated that “there was no criminal evidence that Mr Dalli was either the mastermind or an accomplice to this criminal activity.”
However he pointed out that a person has already been indicted on the conclusions of the OLAF investigations and the process is still ongoing.
“The Maltese authorities were not able to conclude the investigation on Mr Dalli in December, when the other person was indicted. Mr Dalli presented certificates attesting that he was not medically fit and thus could not be summoned. The criminal investigation on him has not been concluded yet,” he said.
“Recent statements by the newly appointed Maltese police commissioner do not change these facts,” added.
Dr Kessler also replied to various calls, mostly by MEPs, demanding his resig-nation, following the results of this investigation.
Defending his position, Dr Kessler argued that if he had to heed to MEPs demands, “investigations of allegations concerning persons at highest political level would no longer be possible”.
He underscored the independence of office from any EU institution, and said that if he resigned he would be under-mining this.
He also criticised certain sections of the media, which, he said, were being used “to mislead and manipulate pub-lic opinion”.
Dr Kessler said that despite the fabricated evidence against it, OLAF “collected undisputed evidence” on meetings that took place, “confirmed by Mr Dalli in the course of the investigation”.