OLAF opened 15 investigations into suspected fraud in Hungary last year

The EU's Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has published its annual report, which shows that in 2022 it opened 15 investigations into suspected fraud in Hungary, and in ten of these, the office proposed some kind of financial consequence. The investigation didn't just compare EU member states, but included other countries where EU funds are used as well, Hvg.hu reports.

In the period between 2018-2022, Hungary was the country with the highest number of irregularities detected by OLAF in the areas of European Structural and Investment Funds and Agricultural and Rural Development Funds. Here, 18 irregularities were identified, which affected 0.53 percent of all funds.

Hungary also came first in the area of financial irregularities where damage to the country's own resources is investigated, typically in relation to customs and tax revenue. Ten cases were detected over the last four years, but this represents 18% of total revenue.

According to Hvg.hu, the results of OLAF's investigation for 2022 may be summarised as follows:

• 256 investigations were closed and 275 recommendations were made to the national and EU authorities concerned
• it was recommended that 426.8 million euros be reimbursed to the EU budget, and they prevented the unauthorised use of €197.9 million
• following 1017 preliminary analyses carried out by its experts, OLAF opened 192 new investigations
• 71 possible criminal cases were reported to the European Public Prosecutor's Office.