By Marta ANDREASEN

My recent visit to OLAF

• Back in September the Director General of the EU Antifraud Office, Mr. Franz Brüner, came to the Budgetary Control Committee to present his annual report. In a general response to queries from the members he said that OLAF structure and operations were difficult to explain at that meeting and that he would be inviting all the members of the committee to visit OLAF before the end of the year so as to allow a better understanding of how it works.

Speaking at the meeting I thanked him for his invitation and said I would accept his invitation to visit as soon as possible. Unfortunately Mr. Brüner died in January causing the visit to be rescheduled to February 4th by his office. However this unfortunate situation gave rise to a lot of controversy in regards to who should approve the "interim" Director General. The Committee chairman - without calling for a vote - decided late January, to postpone the visit so "as not to confirm with our presence" the status of the Commission´s appointee.

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