17/06/2021 (Agence Europe) – The EU faces a “big risk” of abuses in its €800 billion post-pandemic recovery fund because some countries refuse to sign up to a common transactions database, warned Ville Itälä, the Director General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday 17 June. “It’s such a huge amount of money. Prevention is important”, Mr Itälä said. He said he regretted the decision of some member states to block attempts to require the use of a longstanding EU-wide financial oversight and risk-assessment mechanism known as Arachne. “We see that it’s a big risk, that’s for sure. Because we don’t have the same possibilities to follow the money flows and the information, and to find the final beneficiaries”, he stressed. (LC)