The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) hosted a dedicated workshop with representatives from the Serbian Ministry of Finance to enhance cooperation in the fight against fraud as well as to improve the use of EU reporting tools, including the Irregularity Management System (IMS).
The event, which took place on 29 April in Brussels, was part of OLAF’s broader efforts to enhance collaboration with candidate countries and potential candidates. Funded through an EU technical assistance project, the workshop brought together around 20 officials from various departments within Serbia’s Ministry of Finance, including financial controllers, tendering officers and evaluation and quality assurance staff, as well as EU and OLAF representatives.
The agenda focused on practical aspects of irregularity reporting and the effective use of IMS — a key tool used across the EU and candidate countries to protect the financial interests of the European Union.
EU legislation requires member states and countries benefiting from pre-accession assistance to report to the Commission irregularities (including suspected and established fraud) they have detected in areas where the EU provides financial support.
Participants discussed the types of data that should be reported in IMS and how OLAF analyses and uses this information to support its investigative work. In the afternoon session, OLAF experts shared best practices related to investigative cooperation and evidence collection and presented an overview of the EU’s anti-fraud architecture.
This initiative supports OLAF’s ongoing mission to safeguard the financial interests of the EU and to foster a culture of shared responsibility and transparency with its international partners.
