OLAF investigating £675m of fraud in last year's EU budget

The EU's anti-fraud department, OLAF, is investigating 1,400 cases of fraud in the EU budget totalling £675m from 2015 alone.

One of the cases being investigated involves the owner of a factory being given £1m to buy vegetable chilling machinery from himself at an inflated price. Another involves evasion of the EU's 54.3% protectionist tariffs on Chinese solar panels by falsifying documents relating to their origin.

The EU is keen to point out that the fraud amounts to only 0.6% of the EU's budget but that's enough to build a new hospital or nearly 6 years of the British government's homelessness budget.

A large proportion of the fraud investigations are for eastern European countries.

Almost €1bn of EU budget lost to fraud and bad accounting last year

The EU lost almost €1bn to fraud and bad accounting in 2014 according to its internal anti-fraud office, OLAF.

The losses represent around 0.7% of the total budget of €142.7 for 2014.

The EU's own internal auditors have refused to sign the EU's accounts off for 19 years and if they've managed to lose this much money to fraud and bad accounting, it looks like it's shortly going to be 20 years.

Corruption costs EU economies €120bn per year

The EU Commission has released the findings of a study into corruption in the EU (no, I don't think they were being ironic) which shows that fraud and bribery are costing the collective economy of the EU €120bn per year.

It isn't clear from the reports whether the estimated €4bn a year that is lost to fraud within EU budgets is included in this €120bn but presumably it isn't as an assessment of the level of corruption in EU institutions was dropped early on. It will come as no surprise that the report was accompanied by a call for the EU's fraud investigation department, OLAF, to be given more money. The report says that the quality of corruption investigations varies widely across the EU so calls for more powers and harmonisation will no doubt follow shortly.

Unsurprisingly, corruption was most prolific in Greece and Spain where between 60-69% of people said they were personally affected by corruption in their daily life. Romania and Croatia were next at 50-59% and Italy and Slovakia at 40-49%. The UK was low down the corruption list at 10-19%.

Mike Nattrass MEP cleared by OLAF

Mike Nattrass MEP has been cleared unequivocally by the European Empire's fraud investigation unit (other peoples' fraud of course, not their own) after a spurious accusation was made against him.

Please note that the EU OLAF enquiry against me is over and I have been totally cleared.

OLAF (EU fraud office) found difficulty in understanding why a complaint had been made and actually refused more information from me, showing that I had followed the EU rules with care, because they already had enough.

It is very easy for anyone to start an OLAF enquiry in order to report "There is an enquiry" to undermine an MEP or to produce internet hate mail.

Many OLAF enquiries are started as a diversion. In my case derailing my UKIP Leadership Election chances was the target.

The allegations made by the Sunday Times implicated Nattrass Giles my former firm. Shouting "fraud" has damaged that business, to the degree that their bank refused them credit, having read the newspaper! In my case it caused an investigation from my professional body The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

There was no fraud whatsoever. Nattrass Giles, gave their services to me within the EU rules, without any fee from the EU allowances to which they were entitled. I want to thank them, apologise for the financial damage to their status and hope they recover.

I am taking legal action against the Sunday Times, as this is the second time they have written lies about me at a time when I was trying to gather UKIP support.

The firm of Nattrass Giles is also taking action against The Sunday Times.

Mike

MIKE NATTRASS MEP

Claims of fraud at EU "anti-fraud" body UPDATED !!

Paul van Buitenen, a Dutch MEP, is to publish new allegations about "irregularities at the European Union's anti fraud office" on the 9th of December.

Mr. van Buitenen says he has strong evidence of serious fraud at OLAF, the European Commission's anti-fraud body, but that the Commission is refusing to take action, reports the ANP news agency.

Last month, he handed over a 45-page report on the new allegations to officials in Brussels, but the Commission has refused to investigate, arguing that OLAF is an independent organisation.

"That shows a complete lack of backbone", ANP quoted van Buitenen, a former Brussels civil servant, as saying.

Revelations of corruption made by Mr. van Buitenen in 1999 led to the downfall of the entire European Commission.

You can Read van Buitenen's letter to Commissioner Kallas here.

Fingers crossed hey ?