Member of European Parliament makes fraud report public

Description: Dutch MEP Paul van Buitenen has published a confidential internal report on abuse of staff allowances described by a colleague as "dynamite". The report highlights money paid for non-existent staff via a system of "service providers" or accountants. He posted a short summary of the report on his website and could face a reprimand for breaching secrecy. British Euro MP Chris Davies who leaked details of the document last month said he was delighted it was now public. "Paul's here as a whistle-blower. They [senior parliament officials] will be angry about this but only because they will look stupid," he said. Overpayments Among the revelations made by the internal auditors are a large number of lay-off payments made to staff of MEPs who were not re-elected. Ten were made to assistants even though they were working for another MEP. And one member of staff is said to have accumulated part-time payments from 12 MEPs over a three-month period. The auditors also refer to abuse of travel costs and expenses. In one case, the expenses amount to three times the staff member's salary. Not everyone on the budgetary control committee is impressed with Mr van Buitenen's decision to go public with the report. Fellow Dutch MEP Jan Mulder, who had originally been in favour of making the details public, said he would not have breached the secrecy order. "If I've signed for it, then I would keep it confidential," he said. British Labour MEP Eluned Morgan said she had written personally to