Media Tribe> What Is the Classic EU Fraud?

Posted by chaudry <k_w572001@yahoo.com> APRIL 19, 2011,  By John W. Miller The median fraud loss in the EU is €420,780, higher than in any other region, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, an Austin, TX-based group which put on a special European conference in Brussels this week. (See a summary of its key findings on Europe here.) The European Union, and its juicy annual budget of over $150 billion, is no stranger to graft. Only last month, members of the European parliament were caught agreeing at least to the notion of bribery. The people carged with policing these crimes work at the European Anti-Fraud Office, a Brussels-based outfit of 500 known by its French acronym OLAF. Its head investigator, a genial Belgian named Anton Penneman, spoke at Tuesday's gathering of fraud detectives. So what, he was asked by a reporter, is the classic EU fraud? His answer: A contract for construction or equipment in Brussels, the bloc's capital and home to some 30,000 EU civil servants, politicians and staff. The target? The person writing the technical specifications for the contract. "If you can manipulate that person and convince them to tailor the specs to your company," you can often win the bid, said Penneman. "Companies are very creative in trying to contact and influence people working at the EU." The inspector encouraged firms to report EU officials soliciting bribes. "If they're doing it with one company, they're doing it with other companies, too," he said, adding that OLAF — annual budget €57 million per year — saves the EU €170 million a year. With the economy sour, officials said they expected fraud to increase across all sectors. "There's always that extra temptation during a crisis," said Koen Albers, president of the Belgian chapter of the ACFE.

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