Article 1
Open ↗ECB anti-fraud committee 1. An anti-fraud committee shall be established in order to reinforce the independence of the Directorate for Internal Audit in its activities and reporting concerning all issues related to the prevention and detection of fraud and other illegal activities detrimental to the financial interests of the ECB and compliance with relevant internal standards and/or codes of conduct of the ECB. The composition and powers of the anti-fraud committee shall be laid down by this Article. 2. The anti-fraud committee shall be responsible for both the regular monitoring and the discharge of the activities referred to in paragraph 1 within the ECB by the Directorate for Internal Audit. 3. The anti-fraud committee shall be composed of three outside independent persons who possess outstanding qualifications relevant to the activities of the anti-fraud committee. They shall be appointed by a decision of the Governing Council, which shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. 4. The term of office of members of the anti-fraud committee shall be three years and this shall be renewable only once. On expiry of their term of office members shall remain in office until their appointments are renewed or until they are replaced, as the case may be. 5. In carrying out their duties, the members of the anti-fraud committee shall neither seek nor take instructions from the decision-making bodies of the ECB, from institutions or bodies of the European Communities, from any government or from any other institution or body. 6. The anti-fraud committee shall appoint its chairperson and adopt its own rules of procedure. It shall take its decisions by a majority of its members. 7. The Director of Internal Audit shall forward a programme of its activities referred to in paragraph 1 above to the anti-fraud committee each year. The Directorate for Internal Audit shall keep the anti-fraud committee regularly informed of these activities, in particular its investigations, the results thereof and the actions taken in that connection. The anti-fraud committee may, where appropriate, instruct the Directorate for Internal Audit with regard to its performance of these activities. In the event that an investigation has been in progress for more than six months, the Director of Internal Audit shall inform the anti-fraud committee of the reasons for it not yet having been possible to wind up the investigation, and also of the expected date of completion. In such a case the anti-fraud committee shall inform the Governing Council. The Director of Internal Audit shall inform the anti-fraud committee of cases in which the management of the ECB or the decision-making bodies of the ECB has failed to act on recommendations regarding an issue of fraud prevention and detection or regarding compliance with relevant internal standards and/or codes of conduct of the ECB. The Director of Internal Audit shall inform the anti-fraud committee of cases in which information needs to be forwarded to the judicial authorities of a Member State. 8. The Anti-Fraud Committee shall present at least one report a year on its activities to the Governing Council, the external auditors of the ECB and the European Court of Auditors. The Committee shall submit reports to the Governing Council, the external auditors of the ECB and the European Court of Auditors on the results of the Directorate for Internal Audit's investigations and the action taken in their respect. 9. The anti-fraud committee shall be responsible for the relations with the Supervisory Committee of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) referred to in Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3). These relations shall follow the principles established by a decision of the ECB. 10. The anti-fraud committee may inform the competent national judicial authority where reasonable evidence shows that there may have been a breach of national criminal law.