OLAF: the fight against EU fraud

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of the European Anti‐Fraud Office, OLAF, in the fight against EU fraud and to consider the difficulties and problems it has to contend with in attempting to carry out its mission.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach adopted was to carry out a number of semi‐structured interviews with relevant officials and to review secondary materials such as reports by the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors and OLAF itself.

Findings

The paper finds a high degree of both organisational and legal fragmentation as well as difficulties caused by the personnel policies of the European Commission leading to a significant staff turnover often in the midst of complex investigations.

Originality/value

It provides an insight into the difficulties faced by OLAF such as the degree of fragmentation with a multiplicity of agencies involved in the fight against fraud and is a contribution to an area, which does not contain a great amount of academic literature.

Citation

Quirke, B. (2007), "OLAF: the fight against EU fraud", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 178-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/13590790710742663