EVALUATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

  1. General information

There were registered 382 responses, mostly from individuals (94% of respondents), from Romania (84% of respondents), individuals not involved in obtaining or spending European funds (87% of respondents).

  1. The perception of fraud prevention (fight against fraud)

64% of those who responded did not trust the fight against fraud to protect the EU budget in Romania and considered that DNA has the leading role in preventing and combating fraud with European funds.

Most respondents do not trust the attitude of national authorities to discover cases of fraud.

To improve public perception of the fight against fraud, two lines of action are needed (both of which have corresponding measures in the SNLAF Action Plan):
- streamlining the work of the institutions responsible for protecting the EU budget
- increase transparency and media coverage of these institutions, including DLAF’s

As main factors that favored fraud were mentioned the lack of professional skills and integrity and the lack of transparency in the relationship between the institutions and the citizens.

In this context, in order to prevent fraud, two specific objectives were set out in the SNLAF Action Plan:
1.3 Raising the level of professional training and staff stability in the field of financial protection of EU in Romania
1.5 Increasing transparency and communication in fight against fraud

Websites and social networks have been selected as credible sources of information on fight against fraud.

Consequently, in order to provide complete and accurate information, several measures in the SNLAF Action Plan aim to extend the access of institutions to these means of information by creating their own sites, with specific sections, and creating social networks pages.

3. Reporting irregularities/frauds

If they were aware of the existence of a fraud, 37% of respondents would complain to DLAF and 19% would complain to the police, while 21% would not know what to do.

The percentages show poor institutional coverage, hence the need to promote DLAF's actions.
Implementing the specific objective of SNLAF 1.5 Increasing transparency and communication in the fight against fraud is aimed to improve the existing situation

In terms of how fraud is communicated, most of the people (over 50%) would opt for e-mail / internet referral.

For this purpose, the SNLAF measure 2.1.1. Completing online fraud/irregularities reporting forms helps citizens by facilitating the submission of complaints
  1. Reforms and changes

In high proportion (over 95%), those who answered did not know or knew insufficiently the measures to prevent fraud, investigate fraud or to recover damages.

Under SNLAF's objective of increasing transparency, measure 1.5.1 aims to Implement the concept of one stop transparency by creating sections on fight against fraud on the institution's website and publishing updated information. There are also other measures to promote public awarenessof the fight against fraud actions of national institutions: organizing an fight against fraud day, press campaigns, etc.

On the last question, over 80% of the respondents consider the adoption of SNLAF a useful measure.

In conclusion, the result of the questionnaire validates the measures proposed and discussed by DLAF with the national institutions in the bilateral meetings, measures thatcan be found in the SNLAF Action Plan and aim to strengthen the protection of the EU's financial interests in Romania through efficient and effective actions, actions that are coordinated, transparent and in line with European guidelines.

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