EU financial aid to coronavirus-affected states as well as less oversight of funds are likely to lead to increased fraud and corruption, the EU chief prosecutor said.

Although the details of the EU COVID-19 stimulus package are still being developed, it is expected that leaders will agree on up to EUR 2 trillion in the coming weeks, and funds will come from the EU budget.

For Laura Codruta Kovesi, head of the newly created EU prosecutor’s office, this is a recipe for unforeseen consequences: increased fraud and corruption.

“There are a lot of reasons to believe that our jurisdiction will increase,” Kovesi, who made her name as a relentless and highly successful anti-corruption prosecutor in her native Romania, told Reuters. 

“If there are more funds, and if there is more flexibility in how to use them, then indeed I anticipate that we will have more work to do.”

The European prosecutor’s office does not plan to begin full-fledged work before the end of this year. Kovesi is still creating a team of prosecutors and headquarters in Luxembourg.

But the body already has jurisdiction and will lead the investigation of major cross-border crimes, including VAT fraud, which is estimated to cost member states as much as EUR 64 billion a year.

According to Kovesi, there are already signs that the response to COVID-19 involves less transparent practices, including the conclusion of procurement contracts without open tenders or the use of fake documents to purchase medical equipment or medicines with artificially high prices.

Currently, her office has received a budget for a little over 32 prosecutors, which is an absurdly small number given their responsibilities.

Kovesi said that on the first day of operation - currently set for November - her office expects to be handed 3,000 cases by member states to investigate. 

“And each year after that, about 2,000 more cases. We need more money and more prosecutors,” she said, declining to put a figure on the number but suggesting “hundreds”.