Brussels, 03/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - In its latest report, which was published on Tuesday, the Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) states that the inquiries it carried out between July 2002 and June 2003 related to presumed losses of 850 million EUR. During this period, Olaf closed 805 inquiries and opened 375 new ones. This year, Olaf focussed on fraud within European institutions, for which 75 inquiries are underway. "Half of corruption allegations within the European institutions showed up irregularities in calls for tender, subsidy procedures, the award and execution of contracts, including conflicts of interest", says the report, which makes no mention of the various inquiries concerning Eurostat.
As a preface to the report, Olaf's Director General, Franz Herman Brüner, says that his organisation "has already demonstrated that it enjoys enough independence to fight fraud within the institutions, without apprehension or bias". He feels that there is no justification for greater independence. "On the contrary, a split with the Commission would give rise to complex problems from a legal, administrative, operational and logistical point of view. Rather than the fight against fraud within and without the institutions, these problems would inevitably turn into the number one concern for Olaf officials for quite some time", writes Mr Brüner, who feels that "the fight against fraud benefits from the current closeness between Olaf and the Commission".
Mr Brüner welcomes the increase in Olaf staff in 2004, but feels that this "still falls short of our needs if we are effectively to ensure the detection of fraud, which is to the detriment of the whole of the budget". He hopes to be able to start assigning regional Olaf liaison officers to various sites in the accession and candidate countries in 2004.