EU funds defrauded of £7.03m in Ireland last year

Reported fraud in Ireland against EU funds last year amounted to some £7.03 million involving 149 cases, the Union's anti-fraud unit, Uclaf, has said.

The Uclaf annual report shows reported fraud against the Union amounted to £1.1 billion, up 7 per cent on the year, while the number of reported cases rose from 4,552 to 5,162 on the year. While a decline in fraud against agricultural and structural spending is noted, there has been a steep increase in reported fraud on the Union's revenue side.

Some £780 million was embezzled in customs and agricultural levies, about 6.5 per cent of total EU revenue in this area. In addition, cigarette-smuggling detected last year amounted to lost revenue of £1.25 billion, one quarter of it to the EU, with the balance lost to member-states.

The Commissioner responsible for the fight against fraud, Ms Anita Gradin, said: "Part of the increase is explained by the huge efforts we have put on improved efficiency in detecting and preventing fraud". She added that the Commission had considerable evidence of the significant involvement of international crime syndicates in systematic attempts to defraud the Union.

Some 50 syndicates with links in both western and eastern Europe have been identified in major Uclaf investigations.

Meanwhile, the Uclaf file on its investigation into financial irregularities in the Dublin office of the Commission has now been passed on to the Garda authorities, the Commission confirmed.

The Irish Times reported a few weeks ago that an official was suspended from duties and that disciplinary charges were initiated against him following an investigation lasting several months. Yesterday, the Uclaf spokesman was unwilling to comment on the sums involved, which are not believed to be large. Community programmes are not involved.

The figures for Ireland show a substantial increase in reported fraud against the structural fund system, up from £80,000 in 1996 to £1.83 million last year. Frauds against the agricultural guarantee fund amount to £540,000, down from 10 times that figure a year before, while those on the revenue side amount to £3 million. A single Irish case involves cohesion fund spending of £800,000. Uclaf has refused to give details of specific cases.