The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency delivers its 2023 Activity Report to the Corts Valencianes, highlighting its collaboration with justice and its international relevance

Press release

València, March 26, 2024.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has delivered the Activity Report for the year 2023 that took place at the Saló dels Espills de les Corts Valencianes, thus complying with the mandate contained in article 22 of Law 11/2016 on the creation of the Agency.

The director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, has handed over the two volumes of the Report, one in Valencian and the other in Spanish, to the president of Les Corts, Llanos Massó. The event was also attended by the Ombudsmen of all the parliamentary groups and the Bureau of Les Corts.

The Report includes the activity carried out by the Agency during 2023 in the area of training, prevention and documentation; the legal and whistleblower protection area; analysis and research; Administration, Recruitment, and Human Resources and Communication.

Among the highlights of the 2023 Report is the international recognition of the work carried out by the Agency, which has been highlighted in the exchanges carried out with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) and the visits received by the Anti-Corruption Office of Georgia or the National Anti-Corruption Centre of the Republic of Moldova. She was also invited by the European Commission’s group of experts to explain how its complaint box works.

In 2023, the Agency participated in meetings and encounters with the European Anti-Corruption Partners (EPAC) network; the European Network of Anti-Corruption Contact Points (EAPCN); the Network of European Integrity Authorities and Whistleblowers (NEIWA) and the Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (NCPA).

The second outstanding aspect of 2023 has been its intense collaboration with the judicial bodies, which has materialized with the signing of a Collaboration Agreement with the Attorney General’s Office or the provision of training by the Agency’s staff to the 61st promotion of access to the prosecutorial career.

The collaboration has also materialized with the participation of the Agency as a judicial expert in 8 legal proceedings; the preparation of 5 reports of judicial assistance and the presentation and testimony in oral trial in 2 of the proceedings.

You can access the following links:

  • Link to Executive Summary:

https://www.antifraucv.es/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Resumen_ejecutivo_Memoria_AVAF_2023.pdf

  • Link to the 2023 Activity Report:

https://www.antifraucv.es/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MEMORIA_AVAF_2023_CAS.pdf

Staff of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) visit the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency again

Press release

València, March 15, 2024.- A new delegation from the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) has visited the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, to continue with the exchange of experiences and procedures initiated last year.

This is the second visit to Valencia made by the Italian authority, after the one carried out last September 2023 and the subsequent visit of AVAF staff to the ANAC headquarters in Rome.

On this occasion, ANAC technicians from the area of institutional relations and computer systems have delved into different areas such as the implementation of new computer tools and collaboration with other anti-fraud and anti-corruption organizations.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency thus strengthens its relationship with this European institution to obtain synergies and share experiences.

The tender period for the contracting of the psychological care service for whistleblowers of corruption of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is now open

Press release

València, March 5, 2024.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has published on the Public Sector Procurement Platform the tender notice for the contracting of the psychological assistance and care service for people who whistleblow corruption.

The Law on the creation of the Agency and the regulation governing the Statute of the Whistleblower of Corruption include the right to psychological support for the person reporting corruption, which also appears in Law 2/2023 regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory and anti-corruption breaches. Specifically, article 37 of this law specifies psychological help among the measures to support these people. This law was enacted in transposition of European Directive 2019/1937, which in its article 20.2 provides that Member States may provide support measures to whistleblowers, including psychological support.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency was the first entity in Spain to offer protection to whistleblowers and at the moment 37 people (one of them legal entities) have been granted the Protection Statute. In the 7 years of experience that the Agency’s staff has accumulated in the care of protection complainants, they have seen how many of these people have been forced to receive psychological treatment in the difficult situations experienced as a result of filing a complaint.

The pressure to which whistleblowers of corruption are subjected is manifested both in the professional sphere, with situations of harassment or mobbing, and in the personal and family sphere.

In order to offer the best psychological care to these people, the Agency puts out to tender the contracting of this service after carrying out a preliminary market consultation, since there is no background that serves as a reference in relation to psychological care for protection whistleblowers.

Contractual services

The contract includes three types of services that will be part of this new service. On the one hand, the psychological support service itself for whistleblowers of corruption, which will consist of a personal and direct support treatment for the person, telematically or in person of up to a maximum of 15 sessions of between 45 and 50 minutes each. In any case, this treatment would cease if the complainant was receiving psychological treatment from the public health system.

The second of the benefits refers to the assistance and accompaniment in the advice and interviews that the Agency’s staff maintains with the complainants in meetings that will last a maximum of 1 hour and a half.

And the third and last of the benefits refers to advising the Agency’s staff in charge of the protection of whistleblowers of corruption to offer them guidelines and tools that help them improve the care of these people with a maximum of 2 sessions per month.

The contract has a duration of 1 year and estimates that 30% of the protected persons, i.e. 10 people, will benefit from this service. The total cost of the contract is 14,883 euros and the deadline for submitting bids ends on March 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m

You can find all the information on the Public Sector Procurement Platform at the following link:

https://contrataciondelestado.es/wps/portal/!ut/p/b0/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfIjU1JTC3Iy87KtUlJLEnNyUuNzMpMzSxKTgQr0w_Wj9KMyU1zLcvQjS42dTYtCLAzNI3JUDQLMc7zM3UoNgh1tbfULcnMdAd3eBsE!/