Franz-Hermann Bruener, the founding head of the European Union's anti-corruption agency OLAF has died at the age of 64 after a long illness, officials inBrussels said Monday. Bruener had forged OLAFinto a "credible, efficient and respected actor in fighting fraud and corruption,"EuropeanCommission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen told journalists inBrussels.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and the commissioner in charge of anti-fraud matters, Siim Kallas, praised Bruener's "relentless commitment and energetic contribution to fighting fraud and corruption,"Hansen said. OLAF was set up in 1999 to combat corruption within the ranks of the EU's bureaucracy.
It was set up after a scandal in which then-commissioner Edith Cresson was found to have made one of her friends a personal adviser, in violation of EU rules. The scandal led to the resignation of Cresson and all her colleagues on the commission, headed by Luxembourg politician Jacques Santer.