OLAF rapped over procedural lapses in fraud prosecutions

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured European Union (EU) anti-fraud authority OLAF for flouting employee rights when assisting Italian prosecutions of alleged EU frauds. The court ordered OLAF to pay 42 Italy-based officials at the EU’s Joint Research Centre €3,000 each after failing to reveal it had passed potentially incriminating information about allegedly fraudulent accident claims to an Italian public prosecutor. He later decided the evidence was too weak and the officials sued OLAF at the ECJ, claiming breaches of EU staff regulations. The court’s Civil Service Tribunal agreed, saying OLAF could only have avoided informing the officials with permission from the European Commission Secretary General.