Brüner – ‘I lost my first 18 months’

By David Cronin

Date: 13/10/05

The man seeking re-appointment as head of OLAF, the European Commission's anti-fraud office, admitted to MEPs this week that he should have been more transparent about its start-up difficulties.

Franz-Hermann Brüner said that he "lost" 18 months after being appointed OLAF's first director in 2000 because he took on some 1,400 cases from its predecessor UCLAF. It was a mistake, he conceded, not to make public his problems in dealing with that backlog.

Brüner was speaking before a European Parliament hearing (11 October) of the five candidates shortlisted by the European Commission for the top OLAF post.

He acknowledged that the office - set up following the fraud allegations that led Jacques Santer's Commission to resign in 1999 - had had a "very difficult start" and that he had a testy relationship with the committee supervising OLAF.

The Belgian candidate for the post Johan Denolf, an anti-fraud director in the federal police, argued that OLAF did not need any additional resources to its current staff of 380 but that some reallocation would be required. He declined to comment on last year's arrest by Belgian police of German journalist Hans-Martin Tillack for allegedly paying bribes in return for OLAF documents. But Denolf promised that his policy on leaking information would be one of "zero-tolerance".

Sweden's Björn Eriksson, a president of Interpol in 1994-96, said a time limit should be placed on OLAF investigations. He pledged, too, to address criticisms from the OLAF supervisory committee that the office had been inattentive to the rights of suspects.

Frenchman François Falletti, a former general prosecutor in Lyon, argued that OLAF might need to set up task forces on occasions to avoid delays in closing its probes.

He is one of two French candidates in the race. The other, Alain Gillette, head of the national external audit office and chairman of the United Nations' audit operations committee, recommended that OLAF should take on fewer cases in order to improve its effectiveness.

The decision on an appointment is taken by the Commission after consultation with the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

Comments by the Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Franz-Hermann Brüner, on difficulties the agency was facing at the beginning of his mandate, in 2000.

European Parliament: Activities: Hearings http://europarl.europa.eu/hearings/default_en.htm

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