The director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency delivers the 2025 Report to the president of Les Corts

Press release

Valencia, 30 March 2026.- The Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community (AVAF) has presented its 2025 Activity Report, a year in which the anti-fraud control system of the Valencian Community has been strengthened: the entry into force of Law 5/2025, which has consolidated the AVAF as the Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers (AIPI) of the Valencian Community.

 

Record number of complaints. During 2025, the AVAF registered the highest number of complaints in the Agency’s history: 845 cases; an increase of 49.8% compared to 2024. This figure alone represents a quarter of all complaints received by the Agency in its eight years of existence.

 

Shock Plan. To deal with this volume of complaints and also to deal with the accumulated unresolved files, the AVAF has implemented a Shock Plan aimed at reducing deadlines and optimising the operational load, ensuring a rigorous technical-legal analysis. The Shock Plan has slowed down the increase in complaints to be resolved in previous years, has reduced pending complaints by 40%, has raised the total cases definitively resolved to 81.4% and has reduced the time for analysing new complaints from 16 months to just one.

 

Profile of the investigations and anonymity. The local administration concentrates 56% of the complaints. The most reported matter continues to be human resources management with 264 cases. However, there is an increase in the category of individuals and the private sector according to Law 2/2023 as a result of the entry into force of Law 5/2025, of 30 May: complaints from this group account for 18% of cases (139), almost a fifth of the total.

 

Anonymity is confirmed as the main tool for filing complaints, accounting for 72% of complaints (566 cases). In addition, through the Complaints Mailbox, which guarantees encryption and confidentiality in a reinforced way, 712 of the communications received were channeled.

 

Whistleblower protection. Since its creation, the Agency has recognised the protection status of 37 people (36 natural and 1 legal), of which 30 will remain in force at the end of 2025. The AVAF, in 2025, has intervened in serious cases of institutional harassment, achieving the cessation of reprisals in sectors such as the instrumental public and the university. In addition, the Whistleblower Protection Statute has been strengthened, assuming the defense of the workers’ compensation of whistleblowers against possible retaliation.

 

Prevention and external projection. The paradigm shift, in the preventive field, entails the new capacity to carry out preventive consultations (Art. 5 bis), which allows officials and authorities to consult files in process, before a final resolution is issued, to help deactivate irregularities before they crystallize into administrative or criminal offenses.

 

The AVAF has strengthened its presence in global strategic forums in 2025 to turn integrity into a vector of transformation. These actions include: 1) the development of integrity metrics through the LOCRIiS project with the OECD; 2) the standardization of the fight against corruption through the Hague Declaration 2025 (EPAC/EACN), and 3) the harmonization of whistleblower protection in the NEIWA network.

 

Registry of Heads of the Internal Information System (RSII). The Registry of Heads of the Internal Information System (RSII) has 752 registrations from the private sector and 485 from the public sector.

 

Training and culture of public integrity. 3,190 people, mostly civil servants and university students, have participated in 55 activities of the Agency, during 212 teaching hours. 90% of all AVAF training since its creation has been concentrated in the last five years (2021-2025), consolidating its role as a factor of cultural change in Valencian administrations.

 

Democratic integrity and efficiency. The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, also converted into an Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers, has reinforced during 2025 the technical and professional foundations of its function of fraud control and prevention in the Valencian Community.

 

You can consult the 2025 Annual Report at the following link:

https://www.antifraucv.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Memoria_Avaf_2025_es.pdf

Whistleblower protection authorities meet in compliance with Law 2/2023

Press release

Barcelona, 18 March 2026.- The Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community (AVAF) has participated in the coordination session of the independent whistleblower protection authorities established by Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of people who report regulatory breaches.

 

In addition to the AVAF, the meeting was attended by the state-owned Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers, the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia, the Office of Good Practices and Anti-Corruption of the Autonomous Community of Navarre, the Andalusian Office against Fraud and Corruption, the Galician Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers, the Independent Authority on Corruption of Castilla y León,  the Council of Transparency and Good Governance of Castilla-La Mancha and the Council of Transparency and Data Protection of the Community of Madrid.

 

During the meeting, the authorities discussed the status of the processing of the draft of the Organic Law on Public Integrity and the need to establish common criteria for the consistent application of Law 2/2023. Among other issues, the competence model of the different independent authorities, the ways of exercising the sanctioning power, the protection of whistleblowers and the procedures for notifying the people responsible for the internal information systems were discussed.

 

The competent authorities in the field of whistleblower protection have held their biannual cooperation meeting at the headquarters of the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia, in a hybrid format: face-to-face and telematic. This meeting marks the beginning of a stable calendar of periodic meetings that will take place on a rotating basis in different autonomous communities.

 

Article 42.3 of Law 2/2023 establishes that “the presidency of the Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers, A.A.I. shall convene, on its own initiative or when requested by another authority, the regional authorities for the protection of whistleblowers to contribute to the consistent application of the regulations on the protection of whistleblowers. In any case, semi-annual cooperation meetings will be held”.

 

The article adds that “the presidency of the Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers, A.A.I. and the regional authorities for the protection of whistleblowers may request and facilitate the mutual exchange of information necessary for the fulfilment of their functions. Likewise, they may constitute working groups to deal with specific matters of common interest and establish common guidelines for action”.

The AVAF presents a catalogue with 100 risks of corruption in urban management in the Valencian Community

Press release

Valencia, 2 February 2026.- The Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community (AVAF) has published its new “Catalogue of risks against integrity in urban planning”, a technical document that identifies a hundred situations of vulnerability in the management of the territory. This work, issued in compliance with the Agency’s risk analysis functions, arises as a response to the historical problem of urban corruption in Spain and, specifically, after receiving fifty complaints about urban action in the 2024 financial year alone.

 

A vulnerable sector with an impact on local farms.

Urban planning has been for decades a focus of practices contrary to integrity, especially during the so-called “real estate boom”, where the legal system was distorted in favor of speculation. The AVAF catalogue warns that the abusive use of urban planning as a source of municipal financing has generated “economic asphyxiation” and budgetary tensions in local administrations, as the maintenance and service costs associated with new developments are not correctly assessed.

 

Main risks detected

The document systematizes 100 specific risks and proposes mitigating measures for each of them. Among the areas of greatest danger identified by the AVAF are:

  • Personnel and resource management: The lack of qualified civil servants and the excessive outsourcing of public functions to external technical services or commercial companies.
  • Conflicts of interest: The difficulty of detecting who is behind corporate networks in urban planning files and the lack of abstention from public office when it is mandatory.
  • Urban discipline and inactivity: The “urban indiscipline” derived from administrative inaction, which has allowed the proliferation of illegal constructions and degraded areas without basic services.
  • Poor asset management: The absence of an updated Inventory of Assets and Rights in many municipalities, which prevents an effective defence of public heritage and generates lack of control over endowment land.

 

Proposals for ethical and sustainable management

The AVAF stresses that sustainability in development is not a duty, but a necessity to avoid “devastating consequences” on the territory and public finances. To this end, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency urges institutions to implement public integrity frameworks that include prevention plans, codes of ethics, internal reporting channels and continuous training of staff.

In addition, a call is made to strengthen real transparency in decision-making processes, guaranteeing the right of citizens to access information on territorial planning and urban planning agreements.

 

The complete catalogue and its mitigating measures are available for public consultation at:

https://www.antifraucv.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Catalogo_AVAF_Urbanismo.pdf