The Spokesman of the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF Alessandro ButticГ© declared in a statement to the Bulgarian media Thursday that Bulgaria's judicial system still had questionable performance.

According to ButticГ©, Bulgarian courts still dismiss cases without convincing explanations very often.

ButticГ©'s statement was motivated by the need to clarify OLAF's position on certain issues. It points out that Bulgarian media had repeatedly misquoted the OLAF head Franz-Hermann Bruener but does not specify which media have been doing this.

The Spokesman's statement explains that OLAF welcomed the setting up of a currently active task force by Bulgaria at the end of August 2008 led by the General Prosecutor's (GP) office, to investigate SAPARD fraud

The task force is composed of 8 Public Prosecutors, staff from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), tax and other Bulgarian authorities, and is advised by an OLAF staff member who is based in Bulgaria every other week.

OLAF also considers its cooperation with the State Agriculture Fund and the State National Security Agency DANS as positive. ButticГ© stresses that the Fund had informed DANS of a number of suspicious cases including of non-existing companies getting EU money, or of companies without the respective activities.

ButticГ© emphasizes the fact that tackling graft would require a long time and strong prevention initiatives. In his words, OLAF considers the contribution of the Bulgarian Club of Journalists against Corruption very positive for raising public awareness.

Through the statement of its spokesman, OLAF vows to maintain intense presence in Bulgaria.

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