The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency presents the 1st Survey of Perception of Corruption in Spain and the Valencian Community

Press release

Valencia, December 12, 2022.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has presented this morning at a press conference the results of the  1st Survey of Perception of Corruption in Spain and the Valencian Community.

The Professor of Political Science and Administration of the University of Murcia and responsible for the Chair of Good Governance and Public Integrity, Fernando Jiménez, was in charge of publicizing the data of this survey that has had the collaboration of Luis de Sousa, researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon.  The presentation was also attended by the director of the Agency, Joan Llinares.

For the preparation of this survey, more than 1,500 interviews have been carried out  and 400 of them have been in the Valencian Community. The results of this survey offer for the first time an x-ray of the perception that citizens have regarding different aspects related to corruption and ethics and public integrity.

Main results of the encuesta

Among the main problems that concern citizens, the rise in prices occupies the first place with 21.4% followed by politics andn second place (20.3%). Corruption ranks 7th with 2.3%. If we look at the data obtained  in the case of the Valencian Community, inflation also occupies the first place although in a lower percentage (18.8%) while corruption falls to 8th place with 1.5% below issues such as the effects of the war in Ukraine.

As for trust with the institutions, the  Armed Forces, the police and the European Union are the ones that enjoy the greatest support from citizens both throughout the national territory and in the Valencian Community. At the other extreme, the Government, the Congress of Deputies and the political parties are the ones that generate the least confidence.

The survey also includes what citizens understand by corruption and most express that “the behavior has to be illegal to be considered corrupt.” It is striking how a large part of the population considers that “if the irregular action is carried out for a just cause, it is not corruption” or “if the result of an action is beneficial to the population in general, it is not corruption”.

In another of the questions thatis collected in the survey it is asked what they consider to be most important to have economic success in Spain and most think that “having good contacts and cultivating  them” while secondly  it  is considered that it is more important “to have good ideas and strive to explain them”.

Regarding the perception of whether corruption increased or decreased in the last year, 43.34% of the population considers that it neither increased nor decreased. However, the percentage of people who believe it increased is 43% as opposed to 13% who think that corruption decreased to a greater or lesser extent.

Asked about who is more corrupt, the  data indicate that citizens perceive politicians as the most corrupt (60%); followed by businessmen (47%); officials (39%) and citizens (36%). Despite considering that politicians are the most corrupt and when asked about the reasons why corrupt politicians are voted, the majority has responded “because the candidates are from the party with which you sympathize.” The rest of the reasons put forward in order of relevance are “because they have benefited from the favors of the candidate and feel gratitude” and “because they consider that all politicians are corrupt and that is why it does not matter who you vote for.”

When asked if any official has ever asked for gifts or money, 94% of respondents answered that “never” data that are similar both in the whole of Spain and in the Valencian Community.

On the protection received by  whistleblowers of corruption  in our country, the majority thinks that “protecting people who report corruption is an obligation for the whole society” followed by “whistleblowers of corruption can be subject to multiple reprisals” and in third place and well below the previous two is that “whistleblowers of corruption are already sufficiently protected by the police and judges”.

Facts about the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency

In this survey, interviewees have also been asked about issues that directly affect the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency and therefore only the population of the Valencian Community has been asked.

One of them was the degree of knowledge that exists among citizens about the Agency and 32% said they knew the existence of the same compared to 68%. By age, those under 34 years of age are the least known (85%) while the age group of 35-49 are the ones who know it most with 37%.

Among the 32% who answered that they knew the Agency, the opinion about it was considered very good, receiving a majority score of4 out of 5.

And on the functions entrusted to the Agency, the best known by citizens is to “protect those who report cases of corruption”, followed by “detect and punish corrupt people”, “prevent corruption from occurring” and finally “train politicians, officials and students in ethical values”.

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