The European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has urged the European Commission to pay more attention to its senior officials quitting their jobs to pursue a career in the private sector – a practice very likely to lead to a conflict of interest.
The Ombudsman's attention was drawn to the “revolving door” issue following complaints by five NGOs. Subsequently O’Reilly launched an inquiry into 54 “revolving door” cases. She found that frequently the Commission fails to explain and document its decisions to (not) allow to a former servant to take up a new professional role. When confronted with a formal letter from the Ombudsman, the Commission once again failed to come up with adequate responses.
The Ombudsman concludes with attributing the “revolving door” phenomenon to systemic maladministration on the side of the Commission and puts forward 16 recommendations for improvement.
Please read here the European Ombudsman's press release.