Strasbourg, 16 December 2004

Dear Mrs Z.,

On 23 February 2004, you made a complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning an alleged refusal to reimburse travel costs in accordance with a contract. The case (0548/2004/TN) was closed as inadmissible on 16 March 2004, since it was not possible to establish which Community institution or body was concerned.

On 2 June 2004, you informed me that the institution against which you wished to complain was the European Commission. On the basis of this information, I decided to open an inquiry into your complaint, which was registered under a new complaint number (1775/2004/TN).

On 28 June 2004, I forwarded the complaint to the President of the European Commission. The Commission sent its opinion on 30 September 2004. I forwarded it to you with an invitation to make observations, which you sent on 22 October 2004.

I am writing now to let you know the results of the inquiries that have been made.

THE COMPLAINT

In June 2004, a complaint was made to the Ombudsman concerning the European Commission's alleged refusal to reimburse travel costs in accordance with a contract.

According to the complainant, the relevant facts are, in summary, the following:

The complainant travelled from Geneva to Brussels to work as a freelance interpreter for the Commission on 20-21 October 2003. According to her contract with the Commission, the trip should be reimbursed. She sent the necessary documents for the travel claim to the responsible Commission official, but she was informed that he had only received the boarding cards and that he needed the original tickets. The airline stated that it could not re-produce tickets from the past but the complainant managed to get the travel agency to confirm the price of the trip in writing. However, the Commission still insisted on her submitting the original tickets, which she asserts that she did in the first place. The complainant has the impression that every time she has satisfied the Commission's requirements to have her travel costs reimbursed, more requirements are put forward and the Commission keeps delaying her case.

The complainant alleges that the Commission has failed to reimburse travel costs arising from a contract under which she worked as a freelance interpreter in Brussels on 20-21 October 2003.

THE INQUIRY

The Commission's opinion

In its opinion, the Commission makes the following comments:

The complainant worked as an auxiliary conference interpreter (hereafter "ACI") for the Directorate-General for Interpretation (hereafter "DG SCIC") on 19 and 20 October 2003.

On 31 October 2003, DG SCIC received a payment request for 972.50 Swiss francs for her air ticket. However, the enclosed document was not an air ticket showing the price paid. Despite extensive correspondence between the complainant and the Commission official in charge of her payment claims, no air ticket or proof of payment was ever submitted to support her claim.

According to the Commission, the key exchanges of correspondence include a note that the complainant wrote on 5 November 2003, in which she explained that she had a copy of her air ticket. However, this copy was never submitted. The complainant also informed the responsible official that she had lost the e-mail from Swiss International Airlines confirming her electronic ticket and that the airlines concerned (Swiss International and SN Brussels) were unable to retrieve the file on her ticket from their archives.

The Commission considered it unlikely that airlines would not keep records of their reservations and the responsible official therefore contacted the airlines concerned and obtained the addresses of their respective services where this information could be obtained. These addresses were forwarded to the complainant, together with the advice to contact the airlines.

The complainant finally sent the Commission a copy of a fax from Swiss International Airlines showing that the price of the ticket was 19 Swiss francs. The Commission has received indications from the airline that this sum represents the tax on the ticket only, since the ticket was issued as an award ticket. However, the complainant had claimed a reimbursement of 972.50 Swiss francs.

The rules regulating the payments of ACIs are stipulated in the "Convention fixant les Conditions de Travail et le Régime pécuniaire des Interprètes de Conférence Auxiliaires de Session (i.a.s.) et free-lance (i.f.l.) (1) recrutés par les Institutions de l'Union européenne (annotée à la suite de l'adoption du Règlement du Conseil no 628/2000, du 20.3.2000)" (hereafter "the Agreement") and in the "Modalités d'Application de certaines Dispositions de la Convention" (hereafter "the Implementing Rules").

According to Article 10 of the Agreement, travel expenses incurred by ACIs residing outside the local area shall be reimbursed on presentation of supporting documents. The Implementing Rules further specify the type of supporting documents that have to be submitted by the ACI and the information that these supporting documents must contain travel documents. In the case of travel by air, the ACI must submit the boarding passes and the air ticket, which must mention, among other details, the name of the passenger, the fare paid and in which currency it was paid. This was also explained in the manual providing practical instructions for the ACIs as regards payment rules and procedures that have to be followed.

In order to obtain reimbursement of travel costs, ACIs who work outside the local area should submit a payment request form. This form clearly indicates that original tickets and boarding passes must be submitted to the payment office.

The Commission has not been able to pay the requested amount since the complainant has not submitted the necessary supporting documents. DG SCIC has examined the case and is in the process of submitting the file to OLAF for further investigation.

The complainant's observations

In her observations, the complainant maintains her complaint and makes the following additional comments:

The complainant has corresponded extensively, during almost a year, with the Commission, but it was only in its opinion to the Ombudsman that the Commission mentioned the award ticket and that such a ticket is considered null. However, as far as she knows, mileage can be purchased and she would therefore prefer if the Commission could refund to her airline account the actual miles spent for the trip, plus the 126.50 Swiss francs that she paid in cash for the airport taxes.

THE DECISION

1 The alleged failure to reimburse travel costs

1.1 The complaint concerns the European Commission's alleged refusal to reimburse travel costs in accordance with a contract. According to the complainant, she travelled from Geneva to Brussels to work as a freelance interpreter for the Commission on 20-21 October 2003 and according to her contract with the Commission the trip should be reimbursed. Having sent the necessary documents for the travel claim to the responsible Commission official, she was contacted by the Commission with the request that she submit the original tickets, which she asserts that she did in the first place. The complainant is of the impression that the Commission keeps delaying her case by putting forward more requirements. The complainant alleges that the Commission has failed to reimburse travel costs arising from a contract under which she worked as a freelance interpreter in Brussels on 20-21 October 2003.

1.2 According to the Commission, the complainant submitted a payment request for 972.50 Swiss francs for her air ticket. However, the enclosed document was not an air ticket showing the price paid. Despite extensive correspondence between the complainant and the Commission, no air ticket or proof of payment was ever submitted to support her claim. The Commission has thus not been able to pay the requested amount since the complainant has not submitted the necessary supporting documents. According to the rules regulating the payments of ACIs, when travelling by air, ACIs must submit the boarding passes and the air ticket, which must mention, among other details, the name of the passenger, the fare paid and in which currency it was paid. This was also explained in the manual providing practical instructions for the ACIs as regards payment rules and procedures that have to be followed. The Commission has received indications from the airline that the complainant only paid a sum of 19 Swiss francs, representing the tax on the ticket only, since the ticket was issued as an award ticket.

1.3 In her observations on the Commission's opinion, the complainant argues that it was only in its opinion that the Commission mentioned the award ticket and that such a ticket is considered null. However, as far as she knows, mileage can be purchased and she would therefore prefer if the Commission could refund to her airline account the actual miles spent for the trip, plus the 126.50 Swiss francs that she paid in cash for the airport taxes.

1.4 It should be recalled that the Ombudsman, in an earlier decision, has accepted the Commission's stance that award tickets do not represent a real cost and therefore are not reimbursable under the rules governing reimbursement of travel expenses(1). As regards the present case, the Ombudsman notes that, according to the rules regulating the payment of ACIs, the ACI has to submit supporting documents, such as air tickets, showing, among other things, the price of the travel for which reimbursement is claimed(2). From the extensive e-mail correspondence between the Commission and the complainant(3), the Ombudsman further notes that already on the first day of e-mail exchange regarding the matter (5 November 2003), the Commission explained to the complainant that it would need proof of the price paid for the air ticket, for example a copy of an invoice. The Ombudsman finds no evidence to suggest that the complainant has submitted proof of having paid 972.50 Swiss francs for her air ticket, in accordance with her request for reimbursement. This finding is supported by the Commission's assertion that the air ticket in fact was an award ticket, which appears to have been acknowledged by the complainant in her observations. In view of the above, the Ombudsman finds no maladministration by the Commission regarding the matter.

1.5 The Ombudsman also notes that in her observations, the complainant states that she would prefer if the Commission could refund to her airline account the actual miles spent on the award ticket (i.e. that the Commission should buy her air mileage), plus the 126.50 Swiss francs that she paid in cash for the airport taxes. However, as the complainant does not appear to have previously addressed her request directly to the Commission, the Ombudsman is not entitled to deal with the matter(4).

2 Conclusion

On the basis of the Ombudsman's inquiries into this complaint, there appears to have been no maladministration by the European Commission. The Ombudsman therefore closes the case.

The President of the Commission will also be informed of this decision.

Yours sincerely,

 

P. Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS

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(1) See the Ombudsman's decision in case 152/2002/(BB)IJH, available at the Ombudsman's website: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/decision/en/default.htm. The Ombudsman found no maladministration, but made a further remark to the effect that, in view of the widespread use of air miles, the Commission could consider including, in the information given about travel expenses, an explicit statement that tickets purchased with air miles will not be reimbursed.

(2) Article 10 of the "Convention fixant les Conditions de Travail et le Régime pécuniaire des Interprètes de Conférence Auxiliaires de Session (i.a.s.) et free-lance (i.f.l.) (1) recrutés par les Institutions de l'Union européenne (annotée à la suite de l'adoption du Règlement du Conseil no 628/2000, du 20.3.2000)" and Article 10(2)(b) of the "Modalités d'Application de certaines Dispositions de la Convention".

(3) Copies of this e-mail correspondence were submitted by the Commission as an annex to its opinion on the complaint.

(4) See Article 2.4 of the Statute of the European Ombudsman, available at the Ombudsman's website: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/lbasis/en/statute.htm.