The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) opened 192 investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption and misuse of EU funds last year, with Hungary topping the list of EU member states with 15 probes.
According to the agency’s annual report, a further seven CEE countries made it into the top ten of the list.
OLAF recommended in 2022 the recovery of more than 426 million euros to the EU budget, down from the 527 million euros recommended the previous year. The organisation said it prevented 198 million euros from being misappropriated or misused.
According to the annual report, another 256 cases were concluded, up from 212 cases the previous year, as the agency began to investigate the first cases into expenditure fraud linked to the post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The RRF is projected to have a future investment volume of more than 720 billion euros.
“Of course, I cannot speak about expenditure without mentioning the Recovery and Resilience Facility. As EU expenditure expanded, so too did our operations and the key priority for us in 2022 was early detection and we started investigating our first cases,” explained Joanna Krzeminska-Vamvaka, director of Directorate A – Expenditure – Operations and Investigations.
The fact that Hungary appears at the top of a list related to the misuse of EU funds will likely make it more difficult for the country to unfreeze the billions in EU funds that the European Commission has held back over concerns about the rule of law and corruption rife in the country.
The EU Commission has refused to approve the country’s RRF program worth a total of 5.8 billion euros, on the grounds that the funds will only be released to the country if Viktor Orban’s government implements a comprehensive reform of its judicial system.
As part of its assessment of Hungary, OLAF cited the fraud case at a waste management facility where a series of errors were identified and eventually led to the destruction of the center. A recommendation was later sent to the EU Commission to recover 11 million euros.
This is the first full year that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an independent public prosecution office of the EU, has been in operation. Some 71 cases were referred to EPPO by OLAF in 2022, resulting in 42 criminal investigations.
OLAF said another priority for the organisation has been investigating violations of sanctions against Russia and Belarus, and monitoring the billions of EU funds being funnelled into Ukraine.
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