Dear Mr T.,
On 8 June 1999, you lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman concerning the failure of the European Commission to pay your allowances for a meeting organised by the institution in East Malling, United Kingdom, in May 1998, in the framework of the programme COST.
In your complaint, you explained that having completed the standard form for the reimbursement of expenses, three months after the meeting the Commission transferred to your bank account an amount corresponding only to the travel expenses. Despite having requested to the responsible Commission's services that your daily allowances for that mission be also paid, you had not been reimbursed for these expenses.
On 7 July 1999, I forwarded your complaint to the President of the European Commission with a request for comments by the end of October 1999.
In its opinion dated 8 September 1999, the Commission explained that according to the application form for reimbursement that you filled out on 20 July 1998, you had only requested reimbursement of travel expenses. You received these amounts on 10 September 1998. As for your daily allowances, no payment had been made since you had crossed out the section regarding the request for reimbursement, on the basis that they were to be met by another organisation.
The Commission undertook, however, to reimburse your daily allowances for that mission (€443.68) if you could explicitly confirm to its services that these allowances had not been supported by another organisation.
I forwarded to you the opinion from the Commission on 27 September 1999. Your reply of 4 October 1999 indicated that you had no recollection of having crossed out the reference of daily allowances in the form for the reimbursement of expenses. However, if this had been the case, you explained that it was due by the fact that the form had not been distributed in all official languages, but only in English. You enclosed with your letter a sworn statement to the effect that your daily allowances for your mission to East Malling for €443,68 had not been paid by any other organisation.
I transmitted your observations to the Commission on 25 October 1999, and requested a reply by the institution before the end of November 1999.
The Commission replied by letter of 29 November 1999 in which it took note of your sworn statement, and accordingly undertook to transfer the amount corresponding to your daily allowances for that mission to East Malling immediately.
The Secretariat of the Ombudsman contacted the complainant by telephone, and confirmed that the transfer of the dues had been made.
The Ombudsman concludes that the case has been settled by the European Commission to the complainant's satisfaction.
Against this background, the European Ombudsman decides therefore to close the case.
The President of the European Commission will also be informed of this decision.
Yours sincerely,
Jacob SÖDERMAN