The European Union's anti-fraud squad, OLAF, has opened a series of inquiries into the accusations by a European Commission civil servant whose previous revelations led to the fall of the former commission in 1999.
The whistle-blower, Dutchman Mr Paul van Buitenen, was suspended in 1998 for having taken allegations of fraudulent practices in the Commission, then headed by Mr Jacques Santer, directly to members of the European Parliament.
In so doing, he violated the commission's so-called "vow of confidentiality" which requires employees to go through commission channels with such suspicions, away from prying public eyes.
The commission was forced to resign en masse in 1999 in the face of burgeoning accusations of fraud, and the new commission, headed by former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, made honesty and transparancy one of its highest priorities.
Van Buitenen was later transferred to Luxembourg, but continued his own compilation of alleged wrong-doing in the old commission.
Last year he prepared a document detailing his findings and this time took it directly to OLAF.
A "very thorough analysis" of this document, detailing "270 verifiable allegations" accompanied by 5,000 pages of annexes, led OLAF to open four new enquiries, the commission said in a statement.
The statement stressed that the new inquiries deal exclusively with events that transpired in the old commission, prior to the installation in September 1999 of the current body headed by Prodi.
However, most of the officials named in the allegations are still in their jobs. The first inquiry deals with a "potentially fraudulent use of European social funds in a member state," which is not named.
The other three, directly concerning actions of European officials, deal with OLAF's predecessor, the EU Anti-Fraud Unit (UCLAF), the International European Training Center (IETC), and so-called "special inspectors," the commission said.
A commission spokesman refused to comment on the functions of these inspectors, and described the IETC only as a private body financed by European funds.
The commission also stressed that two highly placed commission officials, named in German and British newspapers, had been totally exonerated of wrong-doing by a preliminary OLAF investigation.
AFP