The Hay Derecho Foundation joins the Consell de Participació of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency

Press release

Valencia, May 16, 2023.- The Consell de Participació of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency met in ordinary session and the Hay Derecho Foundation participated for the first time, which has joined as a member of the Agency’s participation body.

The Participation Council includes civic and social organizations, as well as individuals who stand out for their fight against fraud and corruption and for the promotion of ethics and public integrity.

In this meeting held at the headquarters of Les Corts Valencianes, the members of the Consell have been transferred the content of the Activity Report developed by the Agency during the year 2022.

The Report was presented on March 28 to the President of Les Corts, the Síndics and the members of the Mesa de les Corts, thus complying with the mandate contained in article 22 of Law 22/2016 on the creation of the Agency. Likewise, on April 19, the Report was also delivered to the President of the Generalitat.

Now it has been the turn of the Consell de Participació, and in this way, the people responsible for each of the areas of the Agency presented to the members of the Consell the activities and work carried out throughout the year 2022 responding to all the queries raised.

Once the Activity Report was exposed, the vice president of the Consell, Rafa Mauri, of the Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupció, proposed to the members of the Consell the organization of joint activities to involve the whole of society in the promotion and creation of ethics and public integrity, being summoned the members of the Consell to maintain contacts in this regard.

The Consell de Participació is made up  of the following organizations: Acción Cívica contra la Corrupción; Whistleblowers; Valencian Association of Consumers and Users (AVACU); Hay Derecho Foundation;  Baltasar Garzón International Foundation (FIBGAR); Foundation for Justice; Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupció (OCC); Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE); Plataforma Ciutadana Castelló per la Justicia i contra la Corrupció; Trade Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (GESTHA); Tactical Whistleblowers; Transparency International Spain and World Compliance Association.

The Diputació de València and the Agency sign a collaboration protocol to implement the complaints box

Press release

Valencia, May 15, 2023.- The president of the Diputació  de València, Toni Gaspar, and the director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, have signed in the Plenary Hall of the Diputació a collaboration protocol thanks to which the prevention of fraudulent or corrupt behavior is reinforced as well as guaranteeing the protection of people reporting corruption.

One of the actions included in the protocol is the implementation, as an external channel of complaints of the Diputació de València, the mailbox of complaints of the Agency whose link will be included in a visible place on the website of the corporation.

Likewise, through this agreement the Agency will help the Provincial Council in the implementation of an internal complaints channel, which will have the figure of the person responsible for the system and which will have to be in operation before June 13 since this is the date given with the entry into force of Law 2/2023,  of 20 February, regulator of the protection of persons who report on regulatory infractions and the fight against corruption.

The Agency participates in the delivery of the Infoparticipa Stamps to the 7 municipalities and 2 councils more transparent

Press release

Valencia, May 5, 2023.- The Cardenal Herrera-CEU University has delivered  the Infoparticipa 2022 Seals to the quality and transparency of local public communication in the Valencian Community. The municipalities of Onda, Vall d’Uxó, Gandia, València, Elx, Santa Pola, Dénia and the Provincial Councils of Valencia and Alacant have complied in 2022 with the indicators required for the granting of these recognitions. 

The award ceremony was attended by the Rector of the Cardenal Herrera CEU University, Vicente Navarro; the regional secretary of Participation and Transparency of the Generalitat Valenciana, Antoni Llorente; and the deputy director and legal affairs of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Teresa Clemente.

The Infoparticipa Seals are awarded in the Valencian Community by  the Observatory of Governance, Transparency and CSR of the CEU UCH, together with the ComSET Research Group (Sound, Strategic and Transparency Communication) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), following the methodology of the Infoparticipa Map, where the results of the analysis of 52 indicators are integrated into the websites of the municipalities and councils of the Valencian Community. This is the fifth edition of the study, carried out by researchers at the CEU UCH Observatory.

The act of delivery of the Infoparticipa Stamps corresponding to 2022, held this morning at CEU UCH, has been attended by the mayor of Dénia, Vicente Grimalt; the mayor of Santa Pola, Loreto Serrano; the head of Transparency of the Diputació de València, Magdalena Ramírez; the deputy of the area of Transparency in the Diputación de Alacant, Juan de Dios Navarro; the coordinator of Transparency of the City of Elx, José Antonio Galiano, together with councilors and technical staff of all the awarded consistories.

In this edition, 7 municipalities of the 542 analyzed have exceeded 75% compliance with the 52 transparency and participation indicators under analysis on their websites, only one more than in the previous edition. Two are from the province of Castellón, two from Valencia and three from Alicante. The Observatory of the CEU UCH has also analyzed the websites of the three provincial councils of the Valencian Community: those of Valencia and Alacant maintain the quality and transparency of the information on their websites and once again obtain the Infoparticipa Seal. 

Beyond the municipalities distinguished with the Infoparticipa Seals, in 2022 only 20 consistories of the Valencian Community have exceeded 50% of transparency indicators on their websites: 13 in Valencia, 4 in Castellón and 3 in Alicante. Still 95% of Valencian municipalities are still below 50%: in 100 municipal websites between 25 and 49% of the transparency indicators are met, 14 less than in the 2021 edition. And 415 municipal websites remain below 25% compliance in transparency indicators.

This analysis of transparency indicators on the websites of Valencian local entities is carried out annually by researchers from the Observatory of Governance, Transparency and CSR of CEU UCH. His work is part of the R + D + i Project of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIN) entitled “Ethics and Self-regulation of Social Communication: Content analysis of the 2nd Generation Ethical Codes and elaboration of Protocols and Guides for its implementation CETICOM-2G” (Ref. PID2021-124969NB-I00) and also of the AICO.2021/212 Project of the Ministry of Innovation,  Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana.