Siim Kallas is the Estonian Commissioner who has had the job to fight fraud in the EU over the last 5 years and will continue in the same for the next 5. He was before an extraordinary rapid conversion to free market liberalism a member of the the Supreme Soviet between 1989 and 1991.As fraud Commissioner he has been massively succesful as the historic fraud busting cases of ... errr, and ....hmmm show.
Anyhow, if you were the anti-fraud Commissioner, you would acept your wages, but of course. And you would accept all those little perks that come with the job, but of course.
However would you take the piss royally when it comes to travel expenses? Probably not, after all you must be seen to be squeaky clean... So it comes as a surprise to see that is indeed what he is doing.
All EU Commissioners take trips abroad (outwith the EU) for work, it goes with the territory - that is except for Grybauskaite who doesn't seem to have travelled at all. Looking at this table from the EU payments office we can see how many times each has travelled, and how much each has recieved.
And Siim really has caned it. The average is 9,040 euros, Barosso uses an average of 21,898 (well he is President after all).
But Siim? Well the old Commy has managed to pick up a magisterial travel habit and some magnificent jollies. He spent an average of 26,186 euros per trip.
What on earth was he spending it upon, it cannot all be flights, can it?
1 comment:
Extraordinary.
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