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 Agency participates in the 21st annual meeting of the EPAC/EACN held in Moldova

Press release

Valencia, November 23, 2022.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has participated virtually in the 21st annual meeting of the European Partners against Corruption (EPAC) and the European Conctact-Point network against corruption (EACN) in which more than 100 people from the 24 member countries have participated.

The celebration of the meeting in Moldova has conditioned the face-to-face attendance of the participants as this country borders Ukraine. At the meeting, Moldova’s efforts  in  implementing anti-corruption measures to build trust in citizens and for its incorporation as a member of the European Union were recognized.

The  plenary sessions have been divided into two: one related to the investigation in which real cases have been exposed and it has been concluded that it is very difficult to build a system to fight corruption and very easy to destroy it; and another related to international cooperation and exchange of information in which  the importance of cooperation between anti-corruption agencies and organizations has been highlighted.    and public institutions.

This meeting also agreed on the accession of new entities to the EPAC such as the EPPO (European Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office);  Internal Security Bureua of the Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs; Chief Offcial Ethics Commission of Lithuania;  Internal and protection office of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova; Garda Inspectorate of Ireland and the State Bureau Investigation of Ukraine

With these additions, the EPAC is the largest network in Europe in the field of anti-corruption and fraud  and brings together different types of services, agencies, organizations, which represent the anti-corruption system of each country.

The Council also approved the establishment of three working groups:

  • Policy Advisory and Analysis Working Group (APA): to conduct analysis and assist the EPAC/EACN Council in providing opinions or advice on policy issues or public consultations.
  • Training and Knowledge Transfer Working Group (TTK) – to plan and conduct webinars aimed at the EACN community on relevant anti-corruption and policing issues;
  • Project Activities Developing and Implementing Working Group (DIPA): to initiate and develop project activities to promote the exchange of experience and best practices among EPAC/EACN members and observers.

Also at this meeting the candidacy of Ukraine “Anti-corruptionschool” programme https://www.undp.org/ukraine/press-releases/new-basic-online-course-trains-anti-corruption-officersn won the “2022 EPAC/EACN Award”.

Chisinau Declaration 2022

 

The Agency participates in Castellón in a conference organized by the Observatory against Corruption and the Castelló per la Justicia Platform

Press release

Castellón, November 16, 2022. The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency participated in the Conference on “New tools and new challenges in the fight against corruption: panoramic from the Valencian Country”.

The conference was organized by the Platform Castelló per la Justicia i Contra la Corrupció and the Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupció and the collaboration of the Conselleria de Participació de la Generalitat Valenciana and the Valencian Antifraud Agency.

Both the Castelló Platform and the Observatori Ciutadà are entities that are part of the Agency’s Participation Council, a body that aims to facilitate citizen participation in the fight against fraud and corruption.

The conference held in the Assembly Hall of the Provincial Council of Castellón was attended by Dolors Ibañez, president of the Castellón Platform; Rafael Mauri, vice president of the Observatori; Jorge Correcher, professor of Criminal Law at the University of Valencia and Joan Llinares, director of the Agency who presented the new legal framework for the protection of whistleblowers.