The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency presents its complaints mailbox to the group of experts of the European Commission

Press release

Brussels, November 30, 2022.- The director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, appeared this morning before the Commission of Experts of the European Commission in charge of the work of the transposition of the European Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons reporting corruption, better known as the Whistleblowing Directive.

The meeting was attended by  representatives of the 27 member states as well as the candidate countries to join the Union.  The Agency has been invited by the European authorities to explain how its complaints mailbox works as well as its experience in the implementation of this channel.

The Agency’s whistleblowing channel is based on the Globaleaks platform that was originally adopted in Spain by the NGO X-Net. After introducing some improvements such as the bidirectionality of the channel, the possibility of incorporating documents or their legal approval, it was implemented in the Agency in 2018 during its first year of operation.

Currently, 88% of the complaints received at the  Agency are made through this complaints mailbox which also allows the complainant to choose if they want to make the complaint anonymously.

The success ofthe Agency’s complaints mailbox  has been such that its complaints channel model has been exported to other Valencian public bodies and institutions thanks to the signing of collaboration agreements with large administrations  such as the Provincial Council of Castellón or the City Council of Valencia  , to smaller ones such as the City Council of  La Yesa of just  120 inhabitants.

These protocols include that the Agency’s complaints mailbox becomes the external complaints mailbox of these bodies, thus complying with the European Directive on the protection of whistleblowers of corruption. To do this, the technology is adapted and a link is incorporated on the institution’s website that connects to the Agency’s complaints mailbox.

Likewise, the Agency helps and advises these institutions so that they can implement the mailbox as an internal channel of complaints within a group of actions aimed at providing these bodies with a framework of integrity. At this point,  the adoption of the Agency’s internal complaints mailbox has also been shown as part of the approval of the Code of Ethics and Conduct for its staff and the creation of an Ethics Committee.

In his speech, the Director of the Agency  was accompanied by Javier Alamá, head of the Agency’s information service and  one of the persons responsible for the operation of the complaints box who answered the technical questions asked by the members of the Committee of Experts on the operation of   the mailbox.

In addition to the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, the Autorità Naziional Anticorruzione (ANAC) has been invited to show its experience in a day that lasted all morning.

 

Link to the complaints mailbox:

https://www.antifraucv.es/en/complaints-mailbox-2/

 

The DocuforumAVAF “Conflicts of interest and public integrity” for the first time at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón

Courses

#TrainingAVAF

Castellón.- November 29, 2022

The longest training activity of those carried out by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, the #DocuforumAVAF, goes a step further in its evolution and the documentary “Conflicts of interest and public integrity” joins the training experiences offered to Valencian universities.

If until now “Corruption: Harmful Organism” on Pandora Box TV was the documentary that was seen, preferentially, in the #DocuForumAVAF activities, now it is also available to those university professors who request it, the possibility of reflecting in the classroom on the administrative situation of the “conflict of interest”.

This documentary was produced by the TAU of the University of Valencia as a result of the AVAF recommendation “Reflections on conflicts of interest: ignorance is the prelude to corruption”

On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the first two #DocuforumsAVAF “Conflicts of interest and public integrity” were held at the Jaume I University of Castelló, with almost 80 students participating in the degrees of Law and ADE and Law thanks to the Collaboration with Professor Jaime Clemente, from the Department of Constitutional Law.

The first of them took place with the students of the second year of the ADE and Law degree. The 24 university students had the opportunity to reflect on the situation that can occur in the public administration related to conflict of interest and learn about the prevention work carried out by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.

In the second of the DocuforumAVAF, held that same day at the Universitat Jaume I, 55 university students from the second year of Law participated in the subject “Constitutional Organization of the State”. Throughout the debate, the students were interested in the institutional and regulatory mechanisms that are being developed to prevent conflicts of interest from leading to a situation of fraud or corruption.

The designed #DocuforumAVAF activity “Conflicts of interest and public integrity” is carried out in a single session in the classroom, with the students and facilitated by personnel from the Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency. On this occasion, Pilar Moreno, a training technician from the AVAF, dynamized both docuforums, using gamification tools in the classroom for a greater participation of the attendees.

If you are a university or high school teacher in the Valencian Community and you are interested in having the #DocuforumAVAF training activity “Corruption, harmful organism” or ““Conflicts of interest and public integrity” take place in your classroom, do not hesitate to contact the training service of the Valencian Antifraud Agency through formacion@antifraucv.es