The European Commission will inform the European Anti-Fraud Office of the suspicion of corruption and abuse of EU funds in Bulgaria in regard to the data leaked to the media from the so-called “G.P. Gate” scandal.
“The European Commission has no tolerance for corruption and misuse of EU funds,” the institution’s spokesman said.
“We are taking very seriously all the suspected misuse of the Structural Funds, we are following the media materials associated with Bulgaria,” he added regarding the doubts about public procurement violations in the construction sector in Bulgaria. We will communicate with OLAF and we have already requested data on these charges by the relevant authorities,” the spokesman added.
He explained that the EC is obliged to forward to the European Anti-Fraud Office any data that is considered as a subject for an in-depth check. The spokesman noted that for uncompleted inspections, details could not be made public.
The European Anti-Fraud Office is a Directorate-General in the structure of the European Commission empowered by the European Union to protect its financial interests. Its task is to fight in a responsible, transparent and effective way with financial frauds affecting the Union budget, corruption and other illegal or irregular activities, including the poor governance of the European institutions.
The Office shall carry out its activities through internal and external investigations based on full independence. OLAF is developing cooperation between authorities in individual Member States by coordinating their activities and providing the necessary support and technical knowledge to support them to counter frauds. The Office is part of the EU Anti-Fraud Strategy and takes the necessary steps to strengthen the relevant legislation.
All this comes from the theoretically good achievements of our country in the fight against corruption. Bulgaria ranks among EU leaders in regard to convicted criminals on cases of corruption.
Related to the EU, convictions in Bulgaria are more than 80 percent above the average. For the last two and a half years, 26 of the so-called “corruption cases” against deputies, ministers, magistrates and businessmen were examined. For the last 15 years Bulgaria has set up 19 anti-corruption bodies.
The Romanian model is close, but there are only five services charged with this responsible task. Countries such as France, Slovenia, the Baltic States and Poland have only one institution countering corruption.
