Barcelona City Council and the Agency extend their collaboration in the prevention of fraud and the protection of whistleblowers of corruption for four more years

Press release

Barcelona, September 21, 2022.– Barcelona City Council and the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency have signed an agreement that gives continuity to the stable framework of communication and collaboration started now 4 years ago to share knowledge and experiences in the fight against fraud and corruption.
The agreement, which is now being extended, has yielded very positive results that have been reflected, among others, in the sharing of knowledge and practical experiences in the prevention and detection of corruption, promotion of integrity and transparency and protection of whistleblowers.
The deputy mayor of Agenda 2030, digital transition, sports, territorial and metropolitan coordination, Laia Bonet, and the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, have been in charge of signing the agreement that will consolidate and advance in the fulfillment of the objectives of common interest in terms of prevention and fight against fraud and corruption that began on September 18, 2018.
The maintenance of the collaboration is particularly opportune at the present time, given the end of the deadline for transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of whistleblowers of corruption and the need to implement alert or reporting channels in both the private and public sectors.
This is without forgetting the strong role that, as instruments of prevention and detection of fraud risks, the reporting channels charge in relation to the management of Next Generation funds. In this context, the contribution of reflections and experience, by institutions such as the Barcelona City Council, through the Ethical and Good Governance Mailbox and that of the AVAF, is of undeniable general interest.
Barcelona City Council, in compliance with the commitment to implement measures to improve people’s trust in institutions and their representatives, launched the Ethical Mailbox of Good Governance (created with the disinterested support of the citizen platform XNEt), a safe channel for citizen complaints against corruption or other practices harmful to the good governance of the city of Barcelona that has been replicated by other institutions and public administrations (among others, the Generalitat de Catalunya itself, City Councils and Universities and or anti-fraud ficinas).
Laia Bonet said that “the City Council is fully committed to promoting policies of good governance and transparency” and stressed that these tasks “require collaboration between all public administrations.”
The director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, has stated that “the Barcelona City Council was the first administration that launched in 2016 a complaints mailbox and only a year later the agreement is signed through which the City Council cedes the necessary technology to launch the complaints mailbox in the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency”.
“Both institutions were pioneers to equip themselves with an alert system against corruption and thus advanced to the approval of the European Directive on the Protection of Whistleblowers, which includes the obligation to have both internal and external complaint boxes in our institutions and administrations,” added Llinares.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency joins the Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (NCPA) of the Council of Europe

Press release

Valencia, September 13, 2022.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has joined as an observer entity the international organization NCPA (Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities), a network that is within the framework of the Council of Europe in the Division of Economic Crime and Cooperation.
The NCPA network currently has 31 members, an observer entity (the Office for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption in the Balearic Islands) and five partners. Members of the network include representatives from France, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Denmark, Egypt, Tunisia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Jordan and Azerbaijan.
It is the circumstance that to be part of the NCPA only the national authorities of each country can be members and in the case of Spain, not having a national authority to fight fraud and corruption, only the autonomous agencies can participate as an observer entity, a role that will be exercised by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency together with the Office of Prevention and Fight against Corruption of the Balearic Islands.
The current presidency of the NCPA is held by the Hellenic National Transparency Authority (NTA) of Greece.
The NCPA was launched in October 2018 with the aim of addressing the need for cooperation between anti-corruption authorities to improve the collection, management and exchange of information as well as the sharing of their respective experiences and good practices.
Likewise, the network helps the different members and observer entities to implement policies that favor the development of more effective anti-corrosion strategiesthat include both the public and private sectors.
One of the most important works developed by the NCPA is the publication of a map of the existing anti-corruption authorities in the world in which the AVAF (Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (coe.int) is included.
Once the incorporation of the Agency was accepted last week, he participated in a meeting of the NCPA informing the rest of the members of the network of the work carried out by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.
Presence in other international bodies
The NCPA is not the only international organisation in which the Agency participates and thus also forms part as a full member:
-EPAC/EACN
Since 2018, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has been part of the European Network of Anti-Fraud and Corruption Agencies (EAPC), which includes 30 anti-corruption organizations on the European continent.
Likewise , the AVAF is part of the EACN (European contact-point network), a supranational organization made up of more than 60 anti-corruption authorities and police oversight bodies of the Council of Europe.
https://www.epac-eacn.org/
-NEIWA
In 2019 the European Union adopted the Directive on the protection of whistleblowers of breaches of Union law (Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law) directly related to the fight against corruption.
The Network of European Integrity Authorities and Whistleblowers (NEIWA), which currently represents 23 member states, was established in May of the same year to provide a platform for cooperation and exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of integrity and whistleblowing.
The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has been a member of NEIWA since 2019.

“Ending corruption would help reduce public debt”, said the director of the Agency in the Investigation Commission of the Corts Valencianes

Press release

Valencia, September 06, 2022.- The director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, appeared this morning before the Public Debt Investigation Commission of the Valencian Community in the Corts Valencianes.
In his speech, the director began by pointing out that the “central question is whether the public debt contracted is balanced with the financial capacity that each public administration has to deal with it and whether the investments made have a purpose and social return or are I could have dispensed with them as unnecessary.”
And to achieve this objective there is a fundamental tool such as “the evaluation of public policies linked to the principles of good governance, responsible management of public resources and solid control systems,” added Llinares.
He then presented the members of the Commission with different data and studies on the cost of corruption in the increase in public debt. Among these reports, the “Stopping corruption” report prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stands out, in which it is pointed out that corruption costs Spain about 60,000 million annually, which is equivalent to a negative impact on the GDP close to the 4.5 points.
Also the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMV) in a 2015 report states that “it is estimated that, in the absence of competitive pressure in public contracting, average upward deviations of up to 25% of the contracting budgets can be caused. ”. And at this point, the director of the Agency pointed out that “the CNMV has just imposed a penalty of 300 million euros on the main Spanish construction companies for dividing up and agreeing on prices for 25 years”
“Ending corruption, or at least reducing it, would certainly not end all public debt, but it would reduce borrowing needs and improve the financial capacity of public coffers, helping to build trust in politics and its representatives. and thus strengthening the democratic system”, concluded Llinares.
You can access the entire intervention on the Corts Valencianes YouTube channel here: