Fraud prevention…a realistic approach?
Marc WILS
European Commission
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)
Unit B.1 - AGRICULTURE
- What is OLAF?
- You said fraud? Oops…
- Let’s first see what the reality is like
- How can WE stop and prevent fraud?
- Working together? Really….?
Working area:
The Common Agriculture Policy
“
Fraud and irregularities related to import and/or
export of agricultural products from and to third
countries
“
Fraud concerning intra-Community measures
(agricultural aid in all kind of forms)
Fraud in the context of international food trade
- Smuggling / illegal imports
► misdeclaring the product
► misdeclaring the origin
► withdrawal from transit
- Use of false documents
⇒ transport, commercial,
veterinary cert., cert. of
origin, customs decl.,…
A practical example to illustrate the reality…
On a sunny day in the port of Hamburg…..
German customs select a refrigerated container for
checking….
Why just THIS container…?
⇒ The pre-arrival information shows that the contaner is shipped
directly from China to the European continent; (logically assumed:
Chinese origin!)
⇒
Refrigerated container means frozen cargo = bigger potential risk of
containing meat products;
⇒ Experience has learned that Chinese poultry meat might be
misdeclared as ‘frozen vegetables’.
A scan is taken from the container and the result shows differences in
temperatures indicating different types of cartons…
Doors
Close to the doors the customs find cartons with
spring rolls…
…and, somewhere in the middle, other
vegetable products…
Because of the scan results they decide to work themselves
through the middle of the container and then they find something
very interesting…
Conclusion: now it is clear that the location of the different cartons
packed in one container was ‘no coïncidence’…!
Vegetable
Poultry meat products Spring rolls
Doors
Talking of poultry meat….
In the BIP of
Koper…
Two refrigerated containers with…
Frozen poultry meat hidden in containers declared as
frozen taro (chinese potato chips)
Place of origin: Qingdao, China
Place of destination: Budapest, Hungary
3060 cartons – 51.102 kg
On the
Bill of
Lading…
Name + Address of
Hungarian Consignee
Name + Address of Notify
Party in Hungary
Findings after physical check of the containers:
Behind the first rows of cartons with frozen potato chips…
Frozen chicken breasts in
cartons of a Brazilian
company with Brazilian
health marks…
Official information
Communication of findings by Slovenian vets to:
DG Sanco
CVO Hungary
OLAF
2 duck meat containers…
Declared as frozen taro
Place of origin: Yantai, China
Place of destination: Budapest, Hungary
Interesting link between poultry and duck shipments:
BOTH shipments (chicken and duck meat) destined to one and
the same Hungarian consignee !!
Example of container routing
Activity
Location
Date and
time
Gate Out Export
Empty
Shandong Economic Trade Int`l Trans,
Qingdao, China
30-Mar-2005
23:32
Gate In Export
Full
Qingdao Qianwan Container Co Ltd,
Qingdao, China
01-Apr-2005
03:08
Load Full
Qingdao Qianwan Container Co Ltd,
Qingdao, China
03-Apr-2005
09:37
KIRSTEN
MAERSK
Discharge Full
Gioia Tauro Term., Gioia Tauro, Italy
25-Apr-2005
21:53
KIRSTEN
MAERSK
Load Full
Gioia Tauro Term., Gioia Tauro, Italy
29-Apr-2005
02:52
CAPE
SANTIAGO
Discharge Full
Koper Terminal, Koper, Slovenia
02-May-2005
20:55
CAPE
SANTIAGO
Gate Out
Delivery Full
Koper Terminal, Koper, Slovenia
18-May-2005
09:10
Vessel
Name + Address of Chinese shipper
Name + Address of Hungarian Consignee
Findings after physical check of the 2 duck meat containers:
Frozen duck meat in cartons without any label;
Packages of French meat plant with French health
markings.
Official information
Communication of findings by Slovenian vets to:
DG Sanco
CVO Hungary
OLAF
Illegal poultry imports from China
…being declared as frozen potatoes:
No veterinary checks at local BIP in Koper
Potential health risk
No fake sanitary certificate necessary
Phytosanitary certificate for total quantity of container
OLAF’s intervention:
Contacts with DG SANCO
Operational contacts with Slovenian veterinary and customs services
Mutual assistance request to the Hungarian customs
Request for check to French Veterinary Investigation Service
(result: fake packaging – nice imitation!)
Request for check to Brazilian competent authorities
Can we really prevent such fraud?
→ Ask questions, healthy curiosity is allowed…
Aha, a new airline?
I have never seen this customs
broker…
I thought I had a similar
consignment last week,no?
Who can I contact to ask for more
data?
Maybe I can google…?
Can we really prevent such fraud?
→ Co-operation with customs authorities…
Advantages…
Two pairs of eyes looking at the same goods!
Why not compare the data of the veterinary certificate
with the information on the customs document(s)?
Why not ask additional documents (Airway
bill, manifest, commercial invoice,…) which
might be useful for you AND customs?
Why not learn the basics about the customs
nomenclature explained by…customs? Box 13 of the
CVED…remember?
Can we really prevent such fraud?
→ Set up a risk profile…..
Never be predictable !
Learn from recent fraud patterns within the
RASSF system
Select a period for targetted checks for a
commodity depending of your own biotope…
It is well known: everything looks nice on
paper !
Sometimes you have to be lucky
and look at the details….
… and sometimes you have to look
just a little bit further…
Broccoli and chicken breast filets packed in the same carton…
something a scanner would not detect…
Thank you for your attention!
OLAF/B.1
[email protected]