Transparency, Democracy, Accountability

For discussion today in the Bureau of the Parliament was a small item, item number 17.

17. Exchange of views: Presentation by the Secretary-General on an internal audit on the parliamentary assistance allowance

The problem is, is that meeting is in camera. Which means that only the very senior people in the Parliament get to participate - ie nobody who would dream of talking to me. Indeed the agenda item is subtitled,

The Secretary-General will make an oral presentation on the item

I bet he will. I understand that the report has been written by one Robert Galvin, who is head of unit, internal audit and is based in Luxembourg.

Well informed rumours are suggesting that the silence surrounding this report is well warranted. One comment from a senior official has been passed on to me, "the reason that we cannot make this report open to the public is that we want people to vote in the 2009 (european) elections".

That of course could be Chinese whispers but my scource is normally pretty accurate.

From what I can guess the activities of some Members of the European Parliament will make the Conway affair look like pretty small beer.