The various aspects of the common agricultural policy of the European Union are so complex that opportunities for subsidy fraud abound. For this reason, the supreme auditing institutions within the European Union have for some time pressed to establish an independent unit to investigate this fraud, and some 10 years ago this unit by the name of OLAF has been set up as a separate institution much like the office of official publications, which belongs within the commission structure, but has independent decision making powers. (p. 12).

Methodologically, this book on the European Commissions’ entire fraud office is deeply steeped in the relevant literature on public auditing. The editors would have benefited from taking the two special publications on public auditing in the European Journal of Law and Economics into account.