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Eurostat In September 2003 the EC Commission took notice of allegations by one of its staff, Dorte Schmidt-Brown, that during the 1990s officials of Eurostat, the Commission’s statistical service, channelled hundred of thousands of euros into unofficial bank accounts and that former colleagues and family members set up companies that then received contracts from Eurostat. Concerns had been sounded years before by internal auditors, but it was only in May 2003 that three Eurostat officials were suspended from duty.

In an effort to prevent further revelations RWE admitted making secret payments to politicians of more than 7600,000 (£420,000) each year for lobbying activities, mostly to local politicians. 3 billion) awarded to Deutsche Bahn for subsidised passenger services on about 70 per cent of lines in Brandenburg − those that are most lucrative. The contract was negotiated by Hartmut Mehdorn and Hartmut Meyer, the latter then being the transport minister of Brandenburg. In September 2003, less than a year after the contract was signed, Meyer unexpectedly left his job at the ministry after ten years in office to become an adviser to Deutsche Bahn.

The activities were stated to have taken place in 1987−89, when both politicians were backbench MPs. Tim Smith admitted the accusations and resigned. Neil Hamilton to this day denies them and has brought unsuccessful court actions to clear his name. In his report at the time Sir Gordon Downey, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, said the evidence that Neil Hamilton received cash payments directly from Mr Al Fayed in return for lobbying services was ‘compelling’. c a s e s o f c o r r u p t i o n : awa r d i n g m e d a l s that David Tredinnick and Graham Riddick, two Conservative MPs, had both accepted £1,000 for tabling parliamentary questions.