Rita Schembri has resigned from the Supervisory Committee of the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF to avoid a potential conflict of interest over the investigation of former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli.
The committee is in the process of drawing up a report for EU institutions about the investigation, in which Ms Schembri had been procedurally involved when she was head of the Malta Government’s Internal Audit and Investigations Department.
After the investigation was carried out, she withdrew from any work related to its assessment after the case was referred to the Supervisory Committee.
In her resignation letter last Saturday, Ms Schembri said she had previously hoped to rejoin the Committee after it had completed its assessment. But although the Committee’s assessment is ready, it continues to work on a report on the Dalli case for the EU institutions, Ms Schembri noted.
She was also informed that due to the importance of the case for the assessment of OLAF procedures, the Committee is to continue with its reflection on the case in order to provide legislative advice to the institutions and internal regulatory advice for OLAF.
The Committee’s role is to reinforce and guarantee Olaf’s independence by regularly monitoring the implementation of its investigative function.
Mr Dalli resigned last October after the OLAF investigation uncovered an alleged attempt to influence tobacco legislation. A court case has also been launched by Mr Dalli against the Commission in the European Court of Justice and this will require the Committee’s contribution with regard to its assessment of the conduct of that investigation.
“In view of this I have decided to resign from the Committee to allow it to be immediately reinforced with a fifth member who can be fully active,” Ms Schembri wrote.
Ms Schembri herself is under investigation by the Auditor General in Malta over an alleged breach of ethics when she headed the IAID.
She suspended herself from her permanent secretary role last December over the allegations that she conducted private business affairs from her government offices without declaring her interest to the head of the civil service.