Dear Mr Nikiforos Diamandouros,

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:

On 1st March 2012 Mr Morten Messerschmidt, a member of European Parliament submitted a Parliamentary Question to Mrs Viviane Reding on the False Accounting at Danish Institute of Human Rights. This question is stored at
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getD... and reads :

“To what extent does the Commission monitor the money at the disposal of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights? This EU agency is headed, as the Commission will be aware, by its Danish director Morten Kjærum. Rigsrevisionen (the National Audit Office
of Denmark) has now revealed that there was a widespread incidence of false accounting while Mr Kjærum was head of the Danish Institute for Human Rights between 2002 and 2008, and that public funds were used, with Mr Kjærum’s knowledge, contrary to applicable
law and their intended use. Bearing in mind that the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has a much larger budget than the Danish body, the circumstances uncovered in relation to Mr Kjærum’s period in charge of the Danish Institute for Human Rights should give rise to a comprehensive audit of the use of resources at the
EU agency, inter alia to see whether the unlawful use of public funds has continued at EU level”.

In European Commission`s answer of 20 April 2012 Madame Reding declined EC competence on the subject stating that FRA director is responsible for all matters within his
agency and that “OLAF may also intervene whenever there are sufficiently serious suspicions of fraud, corruption or irregularities detrimental to EU financial interests.”

1. I would appreciate if you could grant me access to any relevant document or information showing if European Ombudsman was made aware about these issues, either by employees of European Commission and/or other employees of EU institutions, bodies, and agencies. If this was indeed the case, I would like to access the related information attached to the existing documents in possession of EU Ombudsman.

2. In case European Ombudsman looked into the false accounting matters as matters related to any complaints brought into his attention, I request access to the relevant documents, including to any written statement submitted to EU Ombudsman by Mr
Morten Kjærum, or Phone call Notes, or Minutes or similar showing Mr Morten Kjærum`s explanations on the false accounting happened at DIHR when he served as DIHR Director.

As European Ombudsman might be aware DIHR is currently a contractor of FRA and of European Commission. The list of these contracts is published in Official Journal of EU and many of them are available in this website.
The DG Justice of European Commission awarded to DIHR these grants:
- Grant ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279 - 994.775,16 EUR
- Grant ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG/3720 - 117.966,25 EUR
- Grant ref. JUST/2011/PROG/AG/1909 - 221.813,66 EUR
- Grant ref. JUST/2007/FRAC/AG/0019/1 - 425.019,00 EUR
- Grant ref. JUST/2008/FRAC/AG/1226 - 498.915,32 EUR
- Grant ref. JUST/2010/PROG/AG/534/D4 - 239.999,66 EUR
This is why I request access to any relevant documents or information related to the substance of Parliamentary Question, documents which European Ombudsman might have. I would like to understand if before the awarding of these contracts to DIHR, the false accounting matters was solved by Danish Authorities and thus there were legal conditions created for DIHR to apply for and win grants and contracts at FRA and European
Commission. Some recent grants of EC and contracts of FRA contracts are available here
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/548/r... ;
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/731/r... ;
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/742/r... and also in FTS system of EC and FRA.

Other reason of asking access to these documents and information is because the Danish Ministry had cut off funding to DIHR because of “the deliberate transfer of old losses to non-existing projects that were created for this purpose”
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...

As European Ombudsman might know, in order to be awarded grants or contracts, DIHR have to pass some legal requirements envisaged in EU financial rules. As can be observed looking into the dates of contracts, and Danish authorities statements, DIHR was awarded contracts and EU grants around the date Danish Ministry cut off DIHR funding.

I would like to understand if the current director of DIHR was aware about the parliamentary question by Mr Morten Messerschmidt, by false accounting at DIHR, by non-satisfactory management of External grants awarded to DIHR, including by EC.

In the frame of a grant competition organized by European Commission in 2012, whose contract was concluded in 2013, DIHR Director declared that everything is in order in DIHR activity as you can see in this Declaration on honor submitted to EC
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/703/r... and in some others declarations disclosed by EC to the public domain and accessible at
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/decla...

It would be much appreciated any access European Ombudsman could grant to any document or useful information. Such access will contribute to the clarification of false accounting matters raised in Parliamentary Question of 1st March 2012, not yet
resolved or if resolved, not yet disclosed to the public.

Also it will clarify the entitlement of legal entities with such problems as false accounting, to access EU funds and to win grants and contract amounted to millions of euro.
In order to get clarified on the details of my request, please find it under some more relevant links:
http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
http://cphpost.dk/news/international/aid...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/563/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/decla...
I requested also access to audit reports by Danish audit bodies. http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/europ...
and OLAF http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/ep_qu... which replied me already under this link
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/622/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/lack_...
Finally I would like to ask if there is any own initiative inquiry opened by European Ombudsman at European Commission and/or FRA.
Thank you very much in advance for your response.

Yours faithfully,

Mike Stabenow

Dear Euro-Ombudsman,

Thank you for response. Actually I would like to ask your services support to generate the cases related to agency in question, in both variants, before and after the extension of mandate of previous union body. It was a different name (observatory for minorities? or similar). Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Stabenow