Summer Academy on AntiFraud Policy, Governance & EU Fund Protection – Preventing and Combatting Fraud, Corruption, Double Funding, Conflicts of Interest and Collusion in Public Funding

Format: In-person, practical examples and interactive workshops with simulation exercises

Learning Objectives

Participants will gain advanced knowledge and practical tools to identify, prevent, and mitigate risks of fraud, corruption, and financial misconduct in public institutions. Every participant develops a concrete action plan during the programme — a practical tool they take back to their institution and put to work immediately.

What You Will Learn

• The Anatomy of Public Sector Fraud and Corruption How fraud embeds itself in institutional processes, why controls fail, and what the latest enforcement cases reveal about evolving tactics. Strategies to detect and deter fraudulent behaviour in public procurement and funding.
• Conflicts of Interest — The Silent Integrity Killer The precursor to outright corruption, undeclared and mismanaged conflicts of interest erode public trust long before any law is broken. We address identification, disclosure frameworks, post-employment restrictions, and the challenge of regulating the blurred line between professional networks and improper influence.
• Corruption, Bribery and Influence How patronage networks, revolving doors, and informal power structures enable undue influence in public institutions. We examine real enforcement actions, influence grey zones, and explore how targeted actors exploit legitimate decision-making channels.
• Procurement Corruption from Within How officials are compromised: through direct bribery and kickbacks, hospitality that crosses the line, post-employment promises, networks built over years, and the deliberate structuring of tender specifications to favours pre-selected suppliers. We will learn to recognise the behavioural and procedural warning signs.
• Procurement Collusion and Bid Rigging How colluding bidders operate inside public tendering systems — cover pricing, market allocation, rotational bidding, and the misuse of subcontracting relationships. We will learn to read the forensic indicators that distinguish genuine competition from orchestrated outcomes.
• Third-Party Risk, Intermediaries, and Subcontracting How fraud, corruption, and conflicts of interest are concealed through subcontractors, consultants, intermediaries, and affiliated entities. Participants will examine due diligence failures, pass-through arrangements, opaque subcontracting chains, and the risks created when public bodies lose visibility over who actually performs, benefits from, or influences funded activities.
• Suspicious Entities, Hidden Ownership, and Financial Crime Risks Shell companies, nominee arrangements, and layered ownership chains act as red flags. We trace beneficial ownership across jurisdictions, recognise the hallmarks of purpose-built fraud vehicles — recently incorporated entities with no history, mass-registration addresses, circular ownership structures — and map networks of connected companies and individuals.
• Double Funding, Grant Fraud and Misuse A deep dive into the specific vulnerabilities of grant-funded operations: overlapping cost claims across programmes, fabricated deliverables, misrepresented eligibility, and the manipulation of reporting timelines. Particular attention is given to EU Structural Funds, Horizon Europe, and Recovery and Resilience Facility schemes, with lessons drawn from OLAF and EPPO investigations.
• Red Flags, High-Risk Transactions, and Early Warning Indicators
  How to identify suspicious behaviour before losses materialise. This session focuses on practical risk indicators in procurement, payments, grants, vendor onboarding, amendments, subcontracting, and reporting cycles, enabling participants to build early-warning systems that are specific, usable, and operationally credible.
• Ethical Governance Failures and Institutional Culture Fraud and corruption rarely happen in a vacuum. We examine the organizational conditions that allow misconduct to flourish — weak tone at the top, normalisation of rule-bending, and the erosion of institutional ethics. We discuss how to build cultures of integrity that go beyond compliance checklists.
• Whistleblowing and Organisational Integrity Most significant fraud is reported by people inside the organisation who decide to speak up. We go beyond the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive to confront why people still do not report: fear of retaliation, normalisation of misconduct, and the rational calculation that silence is safer than disclosure. Handling incoming disclosures, protecting reporter identity, and building the institutional culture that makes reporting channels credible.
• AI-Supported Detection and Risk Scoring Risk-scoring tools and anomaly detection — learning to interpret red flags in procurement data, beneficial ownership records, and grant applications, and to distinguish genuine signals from statistical noise. Equally important, we address what AI cannot do: the data quality prerequisites, the danger of automation bias, and the legal boundaries of algorithmic profiling under GDPR.
• Detection, Investigation, and Response Connecting the dots: how to design red-flag systems that actually work, leverage AI-driven analytics and risk scoring tools for early detection, and structure an effective investigative response — from initial suspicion through evidence preservation to referral and sanctions. Includes working with OLAF, national anti-corruption authorities, and law enforcement.
• Sanctions, Recovery, Exclusion, and Remedial Action What institutions can and should do once misconduct is substantiated or strongly suspected. Administrative recovery, financial corrections, exclusion from future procedures, contract termination and remedial control measures.
• Internal Controls and Anti-Fraud Governance How segregation of duties breaks down in practice, why approval hierarchies become rubber-stamping rituals, and where the critical gaps appear between first-line operations, second-line oversight, and third-line audit assurance. Participants will assess real control frameworks against the COSO and Three Lines models.

The SEMINAR will take place at HILTON HOTEL Lake Como Via Borgo Vico 241, Como, 22100, Italy