Romania ranked 2nd in EU after Bulgaria in top fraud referrals

Europe’s anti-fraud office revealed that it received 87 referrals related to fraud suspicions from Romania in 2008, which ranks Romania on second place after Bulgaria with 142 referrals. In the same time, Romania has only 21 investigation cases for corruption compared to 51 in Belgium and 42 in Bulgaria. Surprisingly, half of the cases investigated in Romania come from finances offered by Romania to developing countries and not from EU structural funds.

The annual report of the European anti-fraud office shows that the institution received referrals from all EU countries but 65% come from Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. The document shows that this does not necessarily denote more frauds but that there is a better communication at all levels.

Romania is ranked 5 in a top investigated cases for 2008 after Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and Great Britain. Out of the 22 investigated cases, 11 refer to the foreign aid offered by Romania to developing countries. In Romania only 5 cases investigated relate to agriculture, 2 in internal investigations, 1 in the cigarette sector and 1 in European policies.

Romania offers external aid to developing countries: some 54 million euro are allocated every year to EU’s funds targeted to developing countries and humanitarian aid.