Monitoring the actions taken by the recipients of OLAF recommendations

• Pages: 36-42

36

The OLAF report 

. Monitoring the actions taken by the

recipients of OLAF recommendations

.. Financial monitoring

The EU’s ability to ensure that funding is spent correctly

and for the benefit of all – and to effectively recover

money put to fraudulent use – is key to improve support

for and trust in the EU and its institutions. OLAF’s work

in tackling fraud, and in particular its recommendations

to recover the considerable sums of money defrauded

from the EU budget, can play a major role in effectively

communicating the successes of the European project.

Yet there is often a significant gap between the

amounts OLAF re commends should be recovered

and the actual sums returned to the EU budget. The

European Parliament has repeatedly asked the Europ ean

Commission to provide information on amounts

actually recovered following financial recomm endations

resulting from OLAF investigations. In its 2019 special

report Fighting Fraud in EU Spending: Action needed, the

ECA also recommended that a robust fraud-reporting

system be put in place, flagging the important gap that

currently exists betwe en recommended and recovered

amounts.

The Commission is committed to meeting these various

demands to improve the level of follow-up given to OLAF

recommendations by the Commission and its executive

agencies, in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of

the situation and to identify the systemic reasons for

under-implementation of recommendations.

The Commission’s Corporate Management Board has

taken responsibility for this process. At its meeting of

27 November 2019 the Board asked Commission

services to strengthen their follow-up and provide

relevant information to both OLAF and the Directorate-

General for Budget to improve corporate oversight. The

objective is first to obtain a clear picture on the state of

play of past recommendations, and then to establish a

robust control system for the future. OLAF’s aim is to

be able to report on the amounts actually recovered

following financial recommendations resulting from

OLAF investigations as of the OLAF report for 2020.

.. Financial impact of OLAF

investigations in the overall

detection of irregularities across

Europe

Member States are responsible for most EU spending

and they also manage the collection of EU customs

revenue. Their activities represent the first line of

defence against any attempt to defraud the EU budget.

OLAF counts on national authorities to perform their

work efficiently and diligently, and supports them

through active exchange of information and targeted

training.

Under sectoral regulations, Member States have to

report to the European Commission any irregularity or

suspicion of fraud (1) they detect exceeding €10 000.

An analysis of this data is compiled in the Commission’s

Annual Report on the protection of the EU’s financial

interests (the ‘PIF Report’).

() A cas e can be def‌ined as fraud only after a def‌initive sentence

is issued by a competent judicial authority. This can take a few

years following the detection and reporting of the c ase to the

Commission.

Table : Amounts recommended by OLAF for f‌inancial recovery - (€ million)

    

Amount recommended     