Policies to fight fraud

• Pages: 43-46

43

The OLAF report 2019

6. Policies to fight fraud

The best way to fight fraud is to make sure it cannot

take place in the first place, or at least to detect it

rapidly so that corrective action can be taken swiftly.

Identifying and promoting best practice in this respect

is a key element of OLAF’s mission, in addition to its

investigative work. The upcoming multiannual financial

framework for 2021–2027 will provide the opportunity

to develop an enhanced approach to preventing,

detecting and investigating fraud at the EU level.

With this in mind, OLAF proposed a new Commission

Anti-Fraud Strategy (CAFS), which was adopted in

2019 (5). Its implementation over the coming years will

help to strengthen cooperation among Commission

services, OLAF and other stakeholders, improving the

development and coordination of anti-fraud measures

and thereby improving the protection of the EU budget.

6.1. Improving fraud prevention

and detection at the EU level:

the new Commission anti-fraud

strategy

The two priorities of the 2019 CAFS are to strengthen

the Commission’s capabilities in the strategic analysis

of fraud data and to strengthen the corporate oversight

of fraud risk management by Commission services and

executive agencies. OLAF will act as the lynchpin for

both priorities.

To get the most out of cooperation across the Commission,

the Fraud Prevention and Detection Network, a forum

of anti-fraud experts from all Commission services and

executive agencies, has been restructured: services that

share a common interest will work together on specific

issues to improve the effectiveness of cooperation. The

various anti-fraud strategies develop ed by the different

Commission services will be assessed by OLAF to ensure

coherence and effecti veness.

Work has already begun on streng thening corporate

oversight, focusing in particular on monitoring the follow-

up given to OLAF recommendations by the Commission

(5) Commission communication – Commission Anti-Fraud

Strategy: enhanced action to protect the EU budget

(COM() ).

and its executive agencies; the conclusions of this exercise

will be presented to the Corporate Management Board,

which brings together the Commission’s Secretary-

General and the other heads of its central services.

Analysis of fraud-related data, based on the PIF Report, is

also being improved. The 2019 edition of the PIF Report,

which covers 2018, saw improved statistical analysis, for

example by comparing the reporting of irregularities in

the 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 programming periods.

Again using the PIF Report as a base, OLAF also prepared

28 tailored comparative analyses (shared se parately with

each Member State).

Also in 2019, and in close cooperation with the European

Commission spending services and central ser vices,

OLAF agreed with the co-legislators on the standard

PIF provisions that will be part of all legislation on post-

2020 spending programmes , harmonised by area (direct,

indirect and shared management). T hese provisions

reflect the requirem ents that the financial interest s

of the EU should be protected, including through the

prevention, detection, correction and investigation

of fraud and other irregularities. Any person or entity

receiving EU funds is obliged to fully cooperate in

protecting the EU’s financial interes ts, to grant the

necessary access rights to the Commission, OLAF, the

EPPO and the ECA, and to ensure that any third parties

involved in the implementation of Union funds grant

equivalent rights.

Other operating improvements that took place in 2019

include the enhancement of the Irreg ularity Management

System (IMS), which benefited from improved

information exchange and data analysis, helping Member

States, candidate countries and potential c andidate

countries to report to the Commission detected fraud

and irregularities in the implementation of EU funds.

OLAF’s project to develop a methodology for country

profiles in the anti-fraud area, launched in 2018 with

the aim of reaching a common understanding of the

cornerstones of an effe ctive anti-fraud system, was also

updated during 2019 with the development of a data

collection tool for a pilot to run during 2020.