Fraud is a deliberate act of deception intended for personal gain or to cause a loss to another party. DG ECHO considers fraud when aid is prevented from reaching its intended beneficiaries due to the action or inaction of ECHO’s Partner, its staff or its implementing partner(s).

The establishing of measures since the very beginning can help to prevent and detect possible fraudulent activity and reduce the operational, financial and reputational damages. Already at proposal stage, your organisation should assess the risk of fraud when deciding to submit the proposal. In case of submission, you shall, to the extent possible, identify the risks and mitigating measures. Strong oversight and control mechanisms during the implementation of the project are of great relevance. This information shall be provided in sections 7.5 (Assumptions and risks) and 7.6 (Contingency measures) of the Single Form.

Partners must inform the European Commission (ECHO-REPORTFRAUD@ec.europa.eu) immediately of fraud allegations related to the ECHO grant, especially if they are likely to affect or delay the implementation of the action or affect the EU’s financial interests.

Any person or institution, victim or witness of mismanagement or fraud can also contact ECHO-REPORTFRAUD@ec.europa.eu.

For such reporting, please fill in the Fraud Allegation Reporting Form (see below). The information provided will be handled in full confidentiality to protect the rights of those involved. DG ECHO handles personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

You may also refer the matter to the authorities and bodies designated by the applicable legislation, in particular to the European Commission Anti-fraud Office (OLAF).

DG ECHO may take precautionary measures following the report of a suspected fraud to protect the EU’s financial interests. These include payment suspension (Art. 30, MGA) and the suspension of the grant agreement (Art. 31, MGA). These measures are only applied if the suspicions are very severe and/or relate to fraud schemes beyond an isolated incident, or if senior management of the (implementing) partner is suspected to be involved.

Once the investigation or the audit is concluded and fraud is confirmed, DG ECHO will disallow the established amount of the fraudulent activity.

In addition, partners whose staff have committed fraud (including if committed by their Implementing Partners) can be subject to provisions listed in Chapter 5 of the Agreement, namely: grant reduction (Art. 28, MGA), payment suspension (Art. 30, MGA), grant suspension (Art. 31.2, MGA), grant or co-Partner termination (Art. 32.2, MGA). These additional measures are only taken in very serious cases following a careful assessment by DG ECHO.

The following factors play a role when determining if any of the provisions above will be applied:

• The pro-active and timely communication by the partner with DG ECHO and/or OLAF of the allegation and during the investigation.
• The measures in place regarding the prevention, detection and response to fraud and how they were implemented in this specific case.

The risk of additional fraud incidents (e.g. if the scope of the investigation is very narrowly defined).