Across the EU around 24 000 staff members who possess an invaluable know are involved in the implementation of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF). This knowledge could be exchanged in order to further improve the management of the investment programmes and is highly supported by the European Commission through the pilot initiative “Peer2Peer”.
Following a request for expert assistance in the area of ERDF and CF by the “EU Funds Audit“ Department within the Ministry of Finance of Latvia (AFCOS Latvia), tree experts from AFCOS Bulgaria visited Riga in the period 31.05 - 04.06.2016 in order to provide specific expertise on preselected areas of need. The event was organized as a multi-country workshop with the participation of national Latvian experts and Maltese experts and aimed to learn from AFCOS Bulgaria actual in-practice implementation of the National Anti-Fraud Strategy, its Action plan and anti-fraud measures for the protection of the EU’s financial interests.
AFCOS Bulgaria presented its legal framework, structure, function and main tasks, procedures and competences, the Bulgarian model of cooperation with OLAF and the National Strategy for prevention and fight against irregularities and fraud, affecting the financial interests of the European Union for the period 2014-2020 before the Latvian and Maltese experts. The experts of AFCOS Bulgaria participated as lecturers in three ad-hoc workshops and had numerous meetings with the respective national authorities, such as: the EU Funds Management System department, EU Funds Managing Authority, the Latvian Competition Council, the Central Criminal Police Department of State Police, the Economic Crime Enforcement Department, Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau etc.
A number of presentations were delivered by the Latvian and Maltese side covering the topics concerning the activities of the respective institutions. A lot of specific case studies were discussed related to the prevention, detection and counteraction of irregularities and fraud under projects, co-financed by the EU.
The Latvian Service has examined closely the best practices in Bulgaria for conducting administrative and on-the-spot checks, methodology and control mechanisms of the risk analyses in relation to irregularities and frauds with the EU resources as regards to strengthening the AFCOS Latvia as a prerequisite for elaboration of a NAFS. The Bulgarian delegation concluded its expertise in a Report to the Latvian authorities, which consisted in 5 parts: State of play, recommendations for the NAFS and the Action plan, Necessity for involvement of a strong Anti-fraud Coordination Service, Documents to Refer and an Exemplary content of a NAFS. Pursuant of AFCOS Latvia notification, the report was presented to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance in Latvia in order to initiate legal changes based on the recommendations made.
The expert mission contributes to enrich the experience of the Bulgarian, Latvian and Maltese officials in the fight against fraud affecting the EU’ financial interests and founds the base of a fruitful multilateral cooperation.
