Annual report 2002 - EOI

136 ANNUAL REPORT | 2002
He claims that the Commission declares its decision void and that it re-establishes the
transport allowance in question.
THE INQUIRY
The Commission’s opinion
In its opinion, the Commission made the following comments.
By way of decision of 27 September 1999 jointly adopted by the Commission’s Directors
General of the JRC and DG Admin, the Commission withdrew the transport allowance
rights granted to a number of officials and servants with a rotating working schedule at the
JRC at Ispra, Italy. The initial decision of 24 September 1971 and subsequent ones of 25
February 1986, 1 March 1995 and 1 October 1996 granting this allowance had the purpose
of equitably compensating staff as they could not benefit from the daily transport facilities
provided by the JRC. In the end of the 1990’s, the Commission carried out a review of its
transport allowances whereby it discovered that the transport allowance in question at
Ispra did not have a legal basis.
The Court of Auditors had already raised this issue in an audit of the staff costs of the JRC
in 1992. The Court of Auditors considered in this report that the Articles 14b and 15 of
Annex VII in the Staff Regulations, which regulate reimbursement of expenses, did not
allow for the particular transport allowance for rotating staff at the JRC at Ispra. It moreover
considered that the JRC’s use of Article 15(2) as a legal basis to justify the fixed
allowance to its rotating staff was against the principle of sound financial management of
Community funds. The Court of Auditors considered for instance in this respect that the
transport between work and the staff’s residences was not exclusively done during work
hours. It moreover considered it unjustified, as staff working in Petten, Brussels or
Luxembourg in the same situation did not receive the same transport allowance for their
transport between their residence and work place.
Articles 14 b) and 15 of Annex VII (Remuneration and reimbursement of expenses) of the
Staff Regulations concern reimbursement of expenses, transport costs in the present case.
Article 14 b) stipulates that an official who is employed at a location where the transport
is particularly difficult because of the distance between his residence and work may be
given a transport allowance. The Council in Regulation 122/66/EEC of 28 July 1966 laid
down a list of such locations, which did not include Ispra. Article 15 relates to grade A1
and A2 officials who may be entitled to a fixed allowance, a lump sum, so as to cover
transport costs within the location they are employed.
Having regard to the Articles in the Staff Regulations and the review of the transport
allowance, the Commission decided to abolish the transport allowance by decision of 27
September 1999 with retroactive effect as from 1 July 1999. Considering that this decision
concerned several members of staff at the JRC, the Commission informed the staff representatives
of the reasons for the decision during a meeting on 29 September 1999. The
Commission finally states that it regrets to abolish the allowance in question but that it was
necessary because there was no legal basis.
The complainant’s observations
The Commission’s opinion was forwarded to the complainant for observations. No observations
appear to have been received by the Ombudsman.