The Ethics Committee of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is constituted after the appointment of its members

Press release

Valencia, March 22,  2022.- On February 10, 2022, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency approved the Code of Ethics and Conduct for its staff that includes the ethical principles and values of good governance that must inform all the actions of the Agency and will regulate the impartiality, confidentiality and conduct that must necessarily be observed by the staff, especially with regard to the conflict of interest.

Chapter IV of the Code provides for the establishment of an Ethics Committee to ensure the proper application of the Code and to help resolve all disputes that may arise. Once the people who will be part of this Ethics Committee were appointed, it was constituted last week.

The Committee is made up of two persons from outside the AVAF who have been appointed for a period of four years on the proposal of the AVAF Board of Directors. They are Antonio Penadés Chust and  Mª Luisa Cuerda Arnau.

In the case of Antonio Penadés Chust, he is a member of the Participation Council of the Agency, thus complying with the provisions of Article 35, paragraphs 1 and 2, which states that the Committee will be formed by persons outside the AVAF, one of them being at least a member of the Participation Council.

For her part, Mª Luisa Cuerda Arnau is a professor of criminal law specializing in fundamental rights at the Jaume I University of Castellón.

The third member of the Ethics Committee who has been chosen from among the Agency’s own staff by vote is Amparo Martí Puertes, head of the Support and Expertise Unit.

With the appointments of these persons, article 6.3 is also complied with, which states that the Committee will be composed of a maximum of four people, three of them external from among professionals of recognized prestige in the field of the defense of public ethics, integrity and transparency, among which, at least one will be a jurist and another chosen among the staff of the Agency.

Among the functions of the Ethics Committee are to ensure compliance with the Code of Ethics and Conduct: to promote its dissemination and internalization by the beneficiaries; to inform about the doubts or queries that may arise in the cases of interpretation of the Code; to attend to the internal complaints referred to in the Code; to formulate recommendations on breaches of the Code or to prepare an annual report in which it is explained the degree of compliance with the Code.

The Code of Ethics is available on the Agency’s website and can be accessed via this link:

https://dogv.gva.es/datos/2022/02/18/pdf/2022_1132.pdf

The Valencian Antifraud Agency signs an agreement with the College of Registrars to be able to consult the ownership of the commercial companies

Press release

Valencia, March 7, 2022.– The Territorial Dean of Valencia of the Association of Property and Mercantile Registrars, Carlos Javier Orts Calabuig, and the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares Gómez, have signed this morning in the headquarters of the College of Registrars a collaboration agreement between both institutions.
The purpose of the agreement is to regulate consultations by the Agency of the information held by the College of Registrars on the actual ownership of the entities registered in the commercial registers.
The access options set out in the agreement regarding commercial records will be of two types. The first access option will be through the web service where the consultation and reception of information is carried out through the AVAF’s own management applications through automated web services.
The second of the access options will be through the Portal of Real Ownerships where the staff of the Agency will be able to realize individual consultations by means of a digital certificate recognized by the Official College of Registrars.
There will be three types of information inquiries that can be made. The first of these aims to know the real owners of a company by introducing the NIF of the company. The second type of consultation will be to know the companies of which a natural person is the real owner; and the third will focus on the companies of which a company is in the chain of control of a real owner.
The Territorial Dean of Valencia, Carlos Javier Orts, explained that the aim is to “put at the service of society essential information for the fight against money laundering and contribute to it being efficient and able to provide the results that the society is waiting “.
For his part, the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, pointed out that “for the Agency the signing of this collaboration agreement with the College of Registrars is a very important step as it will allow us to access to information that is critical to many of the research we conduct. “
“Collaboration between different institutions sharing information is essential because it is precisely with this crossover of data and checks that we can detect acts of fraud and corruption while allowing us to detect possible conflicts of interest,” added Llinares.

The City Council of L’Eliana signs a protocol with the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency to launch the complaint mailboxes and its Integrity Plan

Press release

València, March 1, 2022.- The mayor of L’Eliana, Salvador Torrent, and the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, have signed a collaboration protocol between both institutions that will help promote the Integrity Plan in the that the City Council of L’Eliana is working on.
Within the general lines of the Integrity Plan, the implementation of both internal and external complaint mailboxes is contemplated, thus complying with the requirement of European Directive 1937/2019 for the protection of people who report violations of the Right of the Union, better known as the Whistleblowers Directive.
The City Council of L’Eliana will enable the Valencia Anti-Fraud Agency’s complaints mailbox as an external channel for complaints, which will be visible on the municipal website; a mailbox that guarantees the confidentiality of the complainants, as well as allowing the possibility of making complaints anonymously.
The collaboration between both institutions will also extend to other actions and activities such as those of a training nature where the council staff will receive training in aspects related to the promotion of ethics and public integrity, as well as the prevention and detection of situations constituting fraud. and corruption.
Likewise, the Agency will offer advice and support for the preparation of the anti-fraud measures plan necessary to be eligible for Next Generation European funds, as set out in Ministerial Order 1030/2021, which configures the management system of the Recovery Plan, Transformation and Resilience.

The mayor of L’Eliana, Salvador Torrent, thanked the entire legal team for their welcome and highlighted “the firm commitment of l’Eliana to the preparation of the Public Integrity Plan which, although it involves effort and continuous improvement actions, will be very positive for elected officials, public managers, employed personnel and for the general public”.
“With its application we will forge a local administration that guarantees the principles of planning, direction by objectives and management control, evaluation of the results of public policies and services or their effectiveness in complying with them,” added Torrent.
For his part, the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, declared that “it is positive to see how more and more town halls and institutions are beginning to equip themselves with instruments to fight against fraud and corruption and they do so not only with reactive measures how can reporting channels be, but also from prevention with training and awareness actions”.
“It is undoubtedly good news that the City Council of L’Eliana is going to have mailboxes for complaints, both internal and external, but more importantly, if possible, it is committed to approving a municipal Integrity Plan”, added Llinares.