Press Release: European Commission appoints Mr Giovanni Kessler as Director-General of OLAF

The Commission has appointed Mr Giovanni Kessler as Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). As Director-General of OLAF, Mr Kessler will be head of a Directorate-General comprising four Directorates and some 500 staff, and will manage a budget of around €50 million. He will be responsible for the three tasks of OLAF. The first of these is to conduct administrative investigations, and Mr Kessler will be responsible, in full independence, for the investigative activity of the Office. This is monitored by the OLAF Supervisory Committee. Secondly, he will manage OLAF’s role in assisting Member States by organising close and regular cooperation between their competent authorities, in order to coordinate activities aimed at protecting the EU budget against fraud. Thirdly, Mr Kessler will be responsible for contributing to the design of the Commission’s anti-fraud strategy. The non-investigative tasks of OLAF are supervised by the Commission, especially by the Commissioner responsible for anti-fraud.