[ad_1]
Romania is the country against which the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) resolved in 2019 the largest number of investigations into the management and expenditure of European funds. More than a tenth of the total of 100 cases refer to fraud with European funds in our country, according to the 2019 OLAF report.
Last year, OLAF investigated how European funds were spent in 42 countries and resolved a total of 100 cases. 11 of them (more than a tenth) refer only to European funds spent in Romania, placing our country in the first place in this regard.
In addition, 9 of the 11 cases were resolved with recommendations from the European body.
What scams with European funds were discovered in Romania
Our country appears in the OLAF report on various chapters on fraud with European funds: aquaculture farms in areas where there is no water, European funds for the prevention of forest fires or funds for wastewater management.
Increasingly complex international maneuvers have been used to seize 148 million euros in 2019, OLAF said in its latest report. The researchers highlighted new or recurring trends in agreements between competitors in procurement procedures; cross-border schemes; schemes related to projects in countries outside the Union and research; smuggling and counterfeiting.
An example is a scam involving the purchase and resale of knitting machines, co-financed by European funds. In this case, OLAF recommended the recovery of € 3.3 million. Romanian courts have sentenced the guilty to one year and four months in prison, with suspension, reports OLAF.
Another case concerns a € 19 million grant to a non-governmental organization to help war-torn Syria; former employees took some of the money.
The OLAF Report can be consulted here: OLAF-2019 Report
Publisher: Bogdan Păcurar
