Brussels, 03/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has criticised the lack of progress made by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in implementing the recommendations made by the ECA in 2005 on refocusing on its investigative function, improving the efficiency of its investigations, demonstrating the effectiveness of its investigations and clarifying the role of the Supervisory Committee. The comments came in a follow-up to the ECA Special Report No 1/2005 on the management of OLAF.
The 2005 special report contained 17 recommendations. The ECA points out that three of the recommendations were not accepted, two have been fully implemented, while the remaining 12 have been implemented to varying extents. The Court states in a press release that its previous recommendations remain to a large extent valid and that efforts should continue to ensure that they are fully implemented.
The ECA also made a series of new recommendations to enhance the performance of OLAF. One of these was that OLAF should increase the number and speed of investigations by increasing the proportion of time spent on its core investigative function. Another calls for the contribution the intelligence units make to investigative work to be enhanced. The Commission should simplify and consolidate anti-fraud legislation, the Court recommends, while OLAF should strengthen its cooperation and partnership with Eurojust.
In March, the Commission brought forward a proposal seeking to reform OLAF, which it hopes will be adopted by the Council and Parliament before the end of this year. (L.C./transl.rt)