Brussels, 18/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - In its latest Activity Report for the period June 2001 to June 2002, the anti-fraud office (Olaf) states that it opened 552 new cases of suspicions of fraud to the detriment of the Community's financial interests. 174 cases concern direct expenditure (32%), 112 (20%) customs and trade, 81 (15%) involved the Structural Funds, 77 (14%) agriculture, 63 (11%) internal cases and 45 (8%) cigarettes and excise.
The number of cases increased by 30% in relation to the Office's first two years of activities. Of the 63 internal cases, the majority (over 75%) of the cases concerned the European Commission, the report stipulates, only referring to one investigation, opened last March, "concerning a person highly placed in a European institution". This case was opened following allegations communicated in February by a member of the European Parliament: Olaf states that over fifteen people have been questioned, and that the investigation was reaching its end.
Olaf, moreover, confirms that "in some Member states, the level of controls and management of programmes relating to agricultural aid and subsidies is low", and cites, notably, irregularities in the land set-aside programme in Greece and in declarations on milk quotas in Spain and Italy. Regarding VAT, the standard case presented concerns a case of fraud in the Netherlands in computing, estimated at 30 million euro (between 1969 and 2000). Cases in the field of structural actions essentially relate to the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional development Fund (ERDF).
In the introduction to the report, the Director General of Olaf, Franz-Herman Bruner welcomes the fact that his institution was able to secure "administrative and budgetary autonomy". "I am pleased, notably, to stress that the Commission has scrupulously respected my operational independence", he writes, noting that "it has not been necessary to call upon the Olaf Supervisory Committee to exercise its primary function of safeguarding that independence". What Olaf now needs is a "period of stability", Mr. Bruner concludes.