FRA Director - revolving doors and alleged conflict of interest - "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum"

Esperando una revisión interna por parte de Agencia de los Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea de cómo han respondido a esta solicitud.

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

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:

*) Any releasable information about the facts identifiable under this link
http://www.information.dk/292555
(Institut advaret om kaotiske regnskaber siden 2003
Gang på gang har Rigsrevisionen kritiseret Institut for Menneskerettigheders økonomistyring. Alligevel har instituttet forsømt at få styr på regnskaberne, skriver rigsrevisor i et brev om det omfattende regnskabsfusk på instituttet, der først blev opdaget i 2011)

**) Any information if the FRA published a similar essay in honor of Morten Kjaerum:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/implementi...
If yes, who paid for publication?

***) Any information if the book "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum" has indeed among the authors also Morten Kjaerum. Who paid that book and under which project? Is there any public link to that essay?
http://www.worldcat.org/title/implementi...

****) I request relevant information if the book "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum", having as authors
Morten Kjærum; Rikke Frank Jørgensen and Klaus Slavensky was part or not under one of these projects mentioned here
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...

First par. of that article on "non existing projects" read as follows:

"The Danish Institute for Human Rights (Institut for Menneskerettigheder) is suspected of “a number of irregularities” that have led to losses of 3,192,000 kroner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated.

The accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers went through the institute’s records and found many errors including, according to the Foreign Ministry, “the deliberate transfer of old losses to non-existing projects that were created for this purpose”.

The ministry has now cut off funding to the Institute for Human Rights with immediate effect, and the institute has been asked for a thorough explanation".

What happened next?

Yours faithfully,

Ernst Sorenson

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agencia de los Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea

TO: Ernst Sorenson

Subject: access to information request - FRA Director - revolving doors and alleged conflict of interest - "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum"

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your e-mail. We hereby confirm receipt of your application for access to documents on 06 June 2013, which was registered under reference number 2013-incoming-000886.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on 26 June 2013. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Waltraud Heller
Communication Team

Communication Department
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030 858
Email: [email address]

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]
Visit us on: http://fra.europa.eu | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times of crisis - read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus, due out 18 June
Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union

mostrar partes citadas

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agencia de los Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea

To the attention of:

Mr Ernst Sorenson
E-mail: via asktheeu.org

Vienna, 26 June 2013
Ref: 2013-outgoing-000980

Subject: Your requests for access to FRA documents and information registered under reference number 2013-incoming- 000886

Dear Mr Sorenson,

We refer to your e-mail dated 05/06/2013 and our reply dated 13/06/2013.

Point 1:
The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) is a public entity under Danish law. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is not competent for this matter. There are no documents to refer to.

Point 2:
FRA has never published such an essay or any other similar publication.

Point 3 and 4:
FRA holds no document on this matter. Please be advised to contact directly the publisher of the essay you referred to in point 3 and the Danish Institute for Human Rights or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark for point 4.

Please address yourself to the DIHR at the following address:

Danish Institute for Human Rights
Wilders Plads 8K
1403 Copenhagen K
PHONE: 32698888
FAX 32698800
EMAIL: [email address]
http://humanrights.dk

Or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Asiatisk Plads 2
DK-1448 Copenhagen K
Tel. +45 33 92 00 00
Fax +45 32 54 05 33
[email address]
http://um.dk/en

Yours faithfully,

Waltraud Heller
FRA Communication Team

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]
Visit us on: http://fra.europa.eu | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times of crisis - read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus.
Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union

mostrar partes citadas

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights's handling of my FOI request 'FRA Director - revolving doors and alleged conflict of interest - "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum"'.

[ the text of CONFIRMATORY APPLICATION accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/unjus...
and below"

"Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

Thank you for your 2 replies accessible from here
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_d...
and here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/use_o...

In accordance to Regulation 1049/2001 I hereby submit a common confirmatory application for the both rejections specified above.

I also complain about the attitude of FRA by referring me to DIHR in order to receive the requested replies. First, DIHR is not covered by Regulation. Second, the Director of FRA was Director of DIHR before to start to work for FRA. I request an appropriate attitude and approach, as stipulated in Code of Good Administrative
Behavior, Council Regulation 1049 and EU Treaties.

For instance, the request called "Use of EU funds at FRA" refers strictly to FRA, to its Director and a fraud scandal. I do not understand why FRA send me to DIHR in order to receive the requested replies. That text reads as follows:

"The Danish Institute for Human Rights #DIHR#, which was headed by Morten Kjaerum prior to his current posting as Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, is currently at the focus of a major
corruption scandal. Allegedly, the Institute has used fraudulent accounting practices to conceal that it spent over three million Danish crowns on projects that never existed. As the fraud is said
to have taken place during Mr. Kjaerum’s tenure as the Institute’s director, a Member of the European Parliament has now called on the EU to take a close look at the accounting of the EU Fundamental
Rights Agency".

The second request refers to conflict of interest in respect of FRA director past job as Director at DIHR. As presented in many sections of this website, he awarded contacts to DIHR amounted to over one million euro as presented in this website. Then he refused
to grant access to those contracts invoking protection of individual`s right for privacy.

http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/eu_fu...
As an EU citizen I am very preoccupied about such attitude of FRA Director. Why such rejections? Why this lack of transparency? If there is nothing to hide, why the access is not granted at least
partially or blanked where necessary?

As to the second request, I am concerned that a Director of an EU agency for fundamental rights and his spouse wrote essays on his own honor and titled those essays as:

- "Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum". See here
http://www.worldcat.org/title/implementi...

or

- "At the Frontier of Human Rights Law : Human Rights and
Biotechnology - Undertitel: Essays in Honour of Morten Kjærum " See
here
http://jura.ku.dk/ansatte/publikationsde...

Mr Kjærum represents the entire EU in respect of this segment
related to Fundamental Rights. I see that in his previous position
as Director at DIHR, implementing human rights were done by using
also this original method: by writing essays on its own honor or
essays by his spouse titled as shown in the link above. For me this
is weird.

Therefore I legitimately requested relevant info on those essays
because it is strange and seems unnatural to write essays on your
own honor. I wanted to know if that counted when European
Commission nominated Mr Kjaerum as Director of an agency for
fundamental human rights.

To be stressed that similar approach continues at FRA and Mr
Kjaerum, nothing less - nothing more, took the steps to put the
Fundamental Rights Charter in rimes as a kind of poem.
From Essays there was a jump to Poems, but this time on EU
citizens' money.

See here http://euobserver.com/justice/29798 a press article called
"Charter of Fundamental Rights to be re-written as 80-minute-long
epic poem". This sounds that somebody plays games with public
money. This is why I request proper replies from FRA.

I request that my requests are reviewed in the frame of this common Confirmatory Application".

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.asktheeu.org/request/fra_dire...

Yours faithfully,

Ernst Sorenson

Ernst Sorenson dejó un comentario ()

the links mentioned above appear to be disabled

Here are a fresh ones:

1) http://www.worldcat.org/title/implementi...

Implementing human rights : essays in honour of Morten Kjærum

Author:
Morten Kjærum; Rikke Frank Jørgensen; Klaus Slavensky

Publisher:
Kbh. : Institut for menneskerettigheder, 2007.

Edition/Format:
Book : EnglishView all editions and formats

Rating:

(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

Subjects
Human rights.
International instruments.
National human rights institutions.

2) http://jura.ku.dk/ansatte/publikationsde...

At the Frontier of Human Rights Law : Human Rights and Biotechnology

Forfatter(e):
Hartlev, Mette

Organisation:
JUR Forskningscenterområdet

Fagfællebedømt:
Ja

Type:
Forskning: Bidrag til bog/antologi

Udgivelsessted:
København

Udgiver:
Danish Institute for Human Rights

Publiceret i:
Implementing Human Rights

Undertitel:
Essays in Honour of Morten Kjærum

Redaktør(er):
Rikke Frank Jørgensen; Klaus Slavensky

Sprog:
Engelsk

Sider:
257-269

Antal sider:
13

Udgivelsesår:
2007