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In a serious case of dangerous amateurism, the European Commission has jeopardised its own personnel on the ground in Kabul, reveals Libération. In 2008 it hired a British firm, Page Protective Services Ltd (PPS), to protect the EU’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, its offices and embassy staff members there, awarding PPS a four-year contract worth an estimated €27 million. However, reports the daily, “the Commission services are well aware that PPS only carried out a small part of its mission”. Libération lists several irregularities: when it first invited tenders, Brussels picked from among the four shortlisted bidders the least professional of them all, “with no experience in a war zone”, and the most expensive to boot. What’s more, PPS did not provide the equipment or hire all the personnel it was supposed to, and it only paid the latter a fraction of the salary budgeted for in the contract with the Commission. The European Anti-Fraud Office has started an investigation into the matter.
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