Andreasen verdict expected within days
Marta Andreasen, former chief accountant of the European Commission, expects to hear in a matter of days whether or not she is to be dismissed for breaching staff regulations, she said today (Thursday).
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Andreasen has been suspended for over two years following her public disclosures of serious weaknesses in the commission’s accounting procedures and an internal Commission disciplinary board has recommended her dismissal.
On Wednesday Andreasen appeared before the outgoing commission which wants to decide the matter before the new team takes over in Brussels at the beginning of November. Andreasen told the commissioners that the flaws she highlighted two years ago still existed today and the commission was ‘like a patient that doesn’t understand the seriousness of his disease and so won’t accept the right therapy’.
‘I told them that the situation I encountered required urgent measures but they have been in a state of denial,’ she told Accountancy Age. She said her two-year suspension had prevented the commission and the EU from benefiting from her experience and knowledge, which were particularly needed at a time when many EU referendums were planned and ‘people want to trust the governing institutions’. Not one of the 24 Commissioners at the hearing asked her any questions, Andreasen said.