Supervisory Committee Issues First Report on OLAF and Warns of Operational Problems

At the end of its first year of operation, the Supervisory Committee for OLAF – the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office – has issued its first annual report. This report, apart from evaluating the Committee’s and Office’s first working year, reveals – which is more important - that the transition of UCLAF (the European Anti- Fraud Unit – OLAF’s predecessor) to OLAF is not complete yet and that the Office is, even though its mission is legislatively quite well defined, confronted with problems of legitimacy due to lacunas and problems in the framework for its operations such as the lack of internal procedures, a shortage of competent staff, flaws in the protection of individuals’ rights, and problems relating to the Office’s independence. The Committee acknowledges that a number of these problems are only temporary, due to the current phase of transition of the Office, but at the same time warns that a number of these problems are more structural and require special attention...[more]