Brussels, 27/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - In Special Report No. 7/2001 'concerning the procedures for the evidencing and checking the placing on the market of agricultural products attracting export refunds' during the 1998 financial year, the Court of Auditors explains it has discovered new cases of fraud and irregularities amounting to a total of EUR 100 million and cases involving the presentation of "false and invalid proofs of arrival". The Court concluded that "little assurance can be obtained from the current system", and recommends that "either the requirement for the systematic presentation of proofs of arrival be replaced by more intensive a posteriori checks, or, if systematic presentation is retained, the system for issue and validation of proofs should be significantly strengthened".
In its response, the Commission explains that most of the irregularities detected by the Court have already been brought to the Commission's notice or are being examined by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Cases being investigated by OLAF include the export to North Korea in December 1998 of 3200 tonnes of Danish feta cheese with an "use-by" date at least 12 months out of date (the export refund was at least double the invoiced amount); alleged irregularities involving exports in 1999 to Japan of grated cheese from Ireland and Germany; false import declarations for Danish cheese exports to Uruguay and for Austrian and Italian goods exported to the Ukraine and Croatia. The Court also signalled that fraud must have occurred in Jordan in 1998 (by Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark and Belgium) to try and get round the United Nations embargo on exports to Iraq. The Commission acknowledges that it is aware of other cases of fraud and signals that it is planning to deal with them using the clearance of accounts procedure, particularly a question of a difference in weight at time of departure and time of arrival of batches of beef destined for Egypt (Ireland, Germany and France are reportedly involved). The Commission does not share the Court of Auditors' views concerning a case of butter exported to Estonia (which should be duty-free), but has agreed to look into the situation in more detail.
In its conclusions, the Court finds that for products attracting export refunds, it would be preferable to apply a single rate of refund to all destinations, but recognises that this is not currently possible for commercial reasons.