Dear Research and Innovation (RTD),

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:

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In GestDem No 2013/3375, http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/dg_cn...,
DG CNECT released on 3/12/2013 the document of 21/2/2011 entitled 'External Audits Synthesis Reports 2011'. The Synthesis Report is Annex D of the of DG CONNECT
‘Bi-Annual Management Report, 01 July 2012 – 31 December 2012’.

The current organisational chat of DG RTD lists the following two Units and Sector:
- M.1 - External audits
- Sector : Outsourced audits and audit certification policy
- M.3 - Risk management

I would appreciate if DG RTD would FULLY release the following documents:

1. The External Audits Synthesis Reports (or equivalent documents) of years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, drawn up by the DG RTD M1 ‘External Audit’ Unit, or its predecessor(s) Units or Sectors, as the case may be. This includes all annexes and appendices thereto.

2. The External Audits Synthesis Reports (or equivalent documents) of years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, drawn up by the DG RTD M3 ‘Risk Management’ Unit, or its predecessor(s) Units or Sectors, as the case may be. This includes all annexes and appendices thereto.

3. The External Audits Synthesis Reports (or equivalent documents) of years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, drawn up by the DG RTD Sector ‘Outsourced audits and audit certification policy’, or its predecessor(s) Units or Sectors, as the case may be. This includes all annexes and appendices thereto.

4. The documents drawn up by DG RTD setting forth the methodologies, practices, and techniques of the DG RTD risk-based audits.

5. The documents drawn up by DG RTD setting forth the methodologies, practices, and techniques of the DG RTD corrective external financial audits.

6. The internal administrative decision, or equivalent, authorising the DG RTD External Audit Unit(s) or Sector(s) to carry out audits pursuant to the above-mentioned methodologies, practices, and techniques.

7. The internal administrative decision, or equivalent, authorising the DG RTD External Audit Unit(s) or Sector(s) to instruct external audit firms to carry out risk-based audits. One such example is found in the case T-165/13 Talanton v Commission, where the field audit was conducted by KPMG Greece. The same audit firm drew up the draft audit report.

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There is an overriding public interest for the full release of the requested documents.

In the interest of brevity, the applicant points out:

1. The two false statements of the prior notification DG RTD DPO-3398.1 and its complete lack of legal basis show that there has been something profoundly wrong in every single DG RTD external financial audit in so far compliance with Regulation 45/2001 and Directive 46/95/EC are concerned.

2. The above false statements make the DPO-3398.1 data controller (a DG RTD Director) liable for several infringements of the Staff Regulations, Regulation 45/2001 by virtue of his personal responsibility according to article 1 second indent of Commission Decision 597/2008. If a senior DG RTD official was prepared to take such personal risks, this implies that the whole Directorate-General stood behind him in full support. This is second proof of the above profoundly wrong nature of the DG RTD external financial audits.

3. The 'sister' of DG RTD DG CNECT even caused the President of the European Commission to misrepresent simple facts in the letter of 30/8/2013 Ares(2013) 2952891,
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/583/r...,
apparently to prevent further revelations about the illegalities of the risk-based audits. DG RTD is referred to a confirmatory application dated 20/10/2013 submitted to the Ombudsman, http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/forme...,
for a good analysis of the illegalities. The DG RTD risk-based audits suffer from the same problems as the DG INFSO risk-based audits. Consequently, the DG RTD risk-based audits are directly associated with the DG CNECT desperate efforts to avoid the disclosure of further information about the risk-based audits of the Research DGs

The overriding public interest is to scrutinise the conduct of the DG RTD external financial audits, especially the risk-based and the corrective ones, shedding light on the role of the high-ranking officials of DG RTD in the illegalities.

High-ranking officials of the Research DGs should not expect that their personal conduct will escape for ever public scrutiny.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Tasos Ntetsikas

Dear Research and Innovation (RTD),

I refer to the application pursuant to Regulation No 1049/2001 GestDem 2013/6469 and your email of 20/1/2014 Ares(2014)114217 extending the time-limit to the 11th of February http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/annua....

This is a kind reminder that DG RTD has not provided an the initial response.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Tasos Ntetsikas

Dear Research and Innovation (RTD),

Thank you for your email of 17 February concerning the application GestDem No 6469/2013, http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/annua....

In view of the considerations of DG RTD regarding the documents falling under the scope of the application, the proposal to extent the time-limit to the 15th of March 2014 is completely reasonable, and is therefore accepted.

Having said that, I would like to take this opportunity to make the following comments.

1. The undersigned submitted the confirmatory application GestDem 2013/6329 http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exter... its object is the release of the DG INFSO/CNECT External Audits Units Synthesis Reports 2008 - 2012, and the associated methodologies.

2. I respectfully suggest that DG RTD take into account the arguments of that confirmatory application, especially sections I to VIII inclusive; the arguments therein are directly applicable to this application.

3. It is patently obvious that DG RTD has been a follower of DG INFSO in the risk-based audits, perhaps a very reluctant one. This is inferred from: (i) DG RTD officials have refrained from proudly publishing their 'pioneering' work in risk-based audits; (ii) DG INFSO/CNECT has a near monopoly of the actions before the General Court arising out of external financial audits; (iii) the prior notification DG INFSO DPO-3338.1 is the archetype of the completely bogus prior notifications of the Research DGs covering the external financial audits - this is a clear sign of who the leader of illegalities has been.

4. The ultimate logical conclusion is that risk-based audits have been a marginal activity of DG RTD, and that DG RTD has kept a modest and measured attitude towards the auditees, as opposed to the outright aggressive, biased and unfair of DG INFSO (e.g., fabrication of extra-contractual obligations about non compliance with the FP6 Guidelines, inadequate time-keeping, objections for researchers working in two beneficiaries, and so on).

The above considerations suggest that it is reasonable to expect that DG RTD would lean towards more transparency in this application in comparison to DG CNECT.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Tasos Ntetsikas