OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud unit, should assign more staff to investigations, according to the European Court of Auditors (ECA). 

An ECA report published on Monday (2 May) says that OLAF should work faster. It takes more than two years on average to complete an investigation, and this is too long. The report notes that only 34% of OLAF staff work on investigations and operations, and despite nearly doubling its staff since 2004 to its current level of 493, OLAF handled fewer cases in 2009 than in 2004.

The report also criticises the time that elapses before deciding whether to launch an investigation: the initial assessment now takes seven months, twice the level in 2004. The report recommends that OLAF should set a maximum length of time for completing investigations.

In its reply to the report, the European Commission contests the estimate of staff working on investigations. It says that 75% of staff contribute to investigations. It accepts that the speed of investigations could be improved but says that the number of cases being handled is not the best measure of OLAF’s performance because it has been focusing on cases involving larger sums of money. The Commission flatly rejects setting a time limit for investigations, saying that a degree of flexibility is needed.

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Jens Geier, a German centre-left member of the Parliament’s budgetary control committee, said that MEPs had stressed the need to have more officials working on investigations when they interviewed candidates for the post of OLAF director-general. Referring to Giovanni Kessler, who became director-general in February this year, Geier said: “Kessler is committed to putting more civil servants onto investigations.”