OLAF draws attention to fishy origins of seafood and cigarettes

Date: 28/11/02

By Karen Carstens

IT IS time to wonder where the shrimp, tuna or crayfish on your plate were born.

That was one message highlighted at the weekend during a seminar in Salamanca run by OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud unit.

One official said some 40 OLAF-initiated investigations are now under way concerning the 'false declaration of species'.

In one instance, investigators went undercover at a weekly fish market in Brussels, posing as bulk seafood importers. They were greeted by Chinese dealers who promised them great returns on crayfish shipments for which they would provide 'all the paperwork'.

Some countries, such as Thailand, have strict hygiene standards for shrimp and crayfish cultivation. Not so China, where they are being cultivated under poor sanitary conditions for export via unorthodox trade routes with false certificates of origin.

'These are fraudulent cases without victims,' the official said. 'But in the end the EU citizen loses out on a lot of tax revenue.'

Cigarette smuggling was another hot topic at the Spanish meeting.

One customs official reporting on cross-channel tobacco smuggling to the UK said that in 1999-2000, some 20% of cigarettes were imported illegally - a loss in duty of €5.5 billion.

Established in 1999 after the Santer Commission resigned amid a series of corruption allegations, OLAF operates at arm's length from the European Commission.

It has been criticised for not snooping around enough on its own doorstep: only 4% of its cases focus on EU institutions, one official told European Voice.

But, he added, anyone committing fraud in an EU body will do anything to 'cover their tracks' - including destroying incriminating files.

Even if OLAF manages to build a case, it is then transferred to the Belgian judicial system, where it can languish for months or years.

OLAF chief Franz-Hermann Brüner admitted that the anti-fraudsters are struggling to dotheir job more efficiently.

'We want to reduce the time so that the results are still of some use,' he said. 'UCLAF [OLAF's predecessor] did not succeed in doing so, and OLAF has only succeeded in a few cases.'

With a staff of 300, however, there is only so much OLAF can do. But Brüner emphasised the 'added value' that OLAF offers in supporting a network of authorities in member states.

'We can only complement the work of national authorities when it is necessary,' he said. 'Otherwise, we'd need to fill the whole Berlaymont [with OLAF staff].'

Report on the work of OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud office.