Meeting of the anti-corruption agencies and regional offices to claim their role as an external channel for complaints and protection of whistleblowers

Press release

Seville,  May 12,  2022.- The regional authorities against corruption of the Spanish State have met in Seville in a meeting organized by the Andalusian Office against Fraud and Corruption and that has taken place at the headquarters of the Andalusian institution, provisionally located in the Parliament of Andalusia.

The meeting brought together the heads of the authorities: Ricardo Vicente Puyol, director of the Andalusian Office against Fraud and Corruption;  Miguel Ángel Gimeno, director of the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia;  Joan Llinares, director of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community; and Belén Méndez, acting director at  the Office for the Prevention and Fight Against Corruption in the Balearic Islands.

On the occasion of the draft law, which transposes into domestic law the European Directive  2019/1937 on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law, the meeting addressed the need for a regulatory anchor that reflects the role of protection of whistleblowers played by these independent authorities and that clearly recognizes them as an external channel for reporting.

The objective of this demand is that the functions they have been exercising, in accordance with their regulatory laws, are adequately endorsed in their field of competence in the aforementioned draft law. It has also been noted that the proposed text should not regress the rights already recognized.

Unisocietat Quart de Poblet debate on ethics and public integrity

Courses

#TrainingAVAF

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency participated on May 11, 2022, in the Unisocietat training activity of the University of Valencia organized in Quart de Poblet to discuss ethics and public integrity.

This activity is carried out within the framework of the collaboration agreement between the Agency and the University of Valencia and aims to raise social awareness of collective ethics and the prevention of fraud and corruption in all areas of public life throughout the Valencian territory. .

The conference was given by the professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Valencia, Cristina García Pascual, who analyzed what is expected of public servants committed to the public good for decision-making with professionalism, transparency and responsibility. It developed the obligations that support public decision-making, insisting on article 8 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, on ethical behavior for the fulfillment of good public service.

The representative of the Agency, Marita Oliver, Training Technician, focused the intervention by explaining the functions and independence of the AVAF, as well as talking about the complaint’s mailbox and the protection of people who alert about corruption.

The conference was attended by 20 people and generated a debate about the difficulty of denouncing in structures as hierarchical as public administrations. The interventions of the attendees insisted on the weaknesses of good public service, as well as the social and economic costs of corruption.

AVAF’s first training experience in Compulsory Secondary Education. The IES Parra de Alzira is the first in the Valencian Community to hold the docuforum on ethics and public integrity.

Courses

#TrainingAVAF

On May 11, 2022, the José María Parra Secondary Education Institute hosted the first docuforum learning experience in the ESO training stage. This has been the first held by the Valencian Antifraud Agency in the entire Valencian Community in this educational stage.

The activity took place in the town of Alzira (Ribera Alta), within the subject of economics with the collaboration of teachers Ana Vercher and Marina Nicola.

The students watched, in a first session, the Pandora Box docuforum “Corruption: Harmful Organism” and raised their doubts and questions about how corruption affects our society, what measures can be carried out to end it and from what kind of institutions.

The second of the sessions of the training experience, elaborated from the interests and doubts of the students, was directed by Pilar Moreno, training technician of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, present in the classroom.

After an introduction to the international and European organizations that have legislated in the area of prevention and fight against fraud and corruption, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, a public entity with its own legal personality and independent in nature, was presented to the young people, only attached to Les Corts.

After explaining the various functions carried out by the AVAF (Prevention, training, analysis, and investigation, among others), the 4th ESO students learned about the Agency’s complaints box, the issues they are most alerted to and the work that makes it unique to the Valencian Antifraud Agency, the protection of whistleblowers.

The students participated very actively in the debate on corruption and noted the negative consequences that impact their daily lives, such as the lack of resources to improve public services (education, health, social services…)

Among the questions asked by young people between the ages of 15 and 17, they highlighted their interest in finding out what they themselves can do to put an end to corruption and whether the measures implemented in the Valencian Community to reduce it had really had an impact.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency initiates with this docuforum a new way through which it can bring the institution, its objectives and functions closer to Compulsory Secondary Education classes, with the aim of participating in the creation of a more informed youth in the fight against corruption, integrity and transparency.

If you are a university, secondary or high school teacher and you are interested in having the training activity “Docuforum on ethics and public integrity” carried out in the subject you teach, do not hesitate to contact the Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency at through formacion@antifraucv.es.