History
OLAF was created in 1999, after strong pressure from the European Parliament. Its predecessor UCLAF (Unité de coordination de lutte anti-fraude), an anti-fraud unit dependent of the European Commission, had failed to convince in the fight against irregularities within the European Institutions. The creation of OLAF is one result of the debates about allegations of fraud and the conduct of former European Commissioner Édith Cresson which in the end led to the collective resignation of the Santer Commission.
An evaluation of the work of OLAF can be found in the Special Report of the European Court of Auditors of July 2005.
The European Parliament took stock of the first six years of OLAF during a public hearing in July 2005.
The UK House of Lords, in a report published in November 2006, stated: "On the basis of the evidence we have received we emphatically refute claims that OLAF is too close to the Commission or that the Commission seeks to divert and influence OLAF’s investigative activities". The House of Lords concluded: "We are content with the extent of the investigations which OLAF has undertaken."
Read more about this topic: European Anti-fraud Office
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dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)