The Supreme Court has prepared the appeal of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency against the request for investigation files in progress

Press release

Valencia, April 23, 2021.- The Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community has issued an order in which it agrees to have the cassation appeal filed by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency ready. against judgment 198/2020 and by which the parties are summoned to appear within thirty days.
The appeal presented by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is filed against the sentence by which the AVAF is obliged to deliver files that are currently under investigation to the parliamentary groups that request it.
The AVAF has always defended that the delivery of investigation files that are open and in progress goes against, as established by its regulatory Law, the duty of confidentiality and very especially because it endangers the development and success of its own investigative work by putting uncovered facts and actions that are being investigated at that time and gathering evidence based on its nature as a public authority and its powers in the fight against corruption, which also affects political parties which fall within its scope of intervention.
Likewise, if the Agency had to deliver the investigation files without the investigation having yet completed, it would be revealing in many cases, directly or indirectly, the identity of the complainants and collaborators in the investigation, as well as those others that may be being investigated, with the repercussions and reprisals that this could entail affecting their constitutional rights, which must be guaranteed. The Agency maintains that its investigation files can only be handed over to the judicial authority.
The delivery of said files to a political group goes against in addition to the position maintained by the Public Prosecutor’s Office itself prior to the opinion of the aforementioned sentence 180/2020, Directive 2019/1937 for the protection of whistleblowers, and the Declarations that has been approving the European Network of Integrity Authorities and Whistleblower Protection (NEIWA) made up of specialized public authorities representing 21 European States and whose objective is to promote and safeguard integrity in their respective States.
The Agency has never been against accounting for investigative actions when they have been completed. Proof of this is the publication of its final resolutions on its website. Nor has he been opposed at any time to transferring any other documentation or file that is related to the administrative operation of the entity; as is being done with the delivery of all fixed cash expenses, reports, contracts, etc., which have recently been requested by a parliamentary group.

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Report

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency signs an agreement with the Civio Foundation for the development of the SceMaps project

Press release

València, April 9, 2021.– The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has signed a collaboration agreement with the Fundación Ciudadana Civio that aims to work together in the development of the SceMaps project.
The Civio Foundation together with the Center for the Study of Democracy in Bulgaria, the University of Trento in Italy and the Expert Forum in Romania are working on the SceMaps project funded by the European Union. This project aims to support European public institutions in improving their governance, including the fight against corruption.
SceMaps is a risk assessment tool used to identify threats of state capture in heavily regulated areas and industries and to monitor anti-corruption policies in member states.
Within this project is the realization of the Monitoring Anticorruption Policy Implementation survey, known as the MACPI survey, and which has the support of the General Directorate of Internal Affairs of the European Union. The Civio Foundation has invited the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency to participate in this survey along with 7 other organizations.
The agreement includes conducting the MACPI survey at the Valencian Antifraud Agency, a survey conducted online and anonymously to public employees as well as external agents related to the AVAF, among which are the entities and associations that are part of the Consell de Participació.
Thanks to this survey, the Agency will be able to assess whether possible vulnerabilities in the field of the fight against corruption are addressed through appropriate policies or, on the contrary, there are implementation or regulation gaps, analyzing the effectiveness of existing measures and proposing case more effective preventive measures.
On the part of the Civio Foundation, its co-director David Cabo has signed the agreement, who thanked the AVAF for its collaboration in “putting into practice a methodology that will allow us to compare the responses of its employees with those of organizations in Italy, Bulgaria and Romania in order to know better how to prevent corruption and avoid bad practices, and that will serve to later formulate recommendations that improve the functioning of the European institutions ”.
On the part of the Agency, its director, Joan Llinares, thanked Civio for inviting the AVAF to participate in the SceMaps project and declared that “this type of collaboration between European organizations and entities undoubtedly allows for solutions and strategies to be sought. joint ventures in the fight against fraud and corruption. It is undoubtedly an opportunity for the Agency to learn the most effective methodology and tools that can help us in the preparation of the future map of corruption risks in the Valencian Community ”.

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The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency presents to les Corts its Activity Report for the 2020 year

Current Information, Press release

More than 800 people receive training from the Valencia Antifraud Agency in matters of ethics and public integrity and the fight against corruption during 2020

València, March 30, 2021.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has presented its Activity Report for the year 2020 to the Les Corts Board, thus fulfilling the mandate contained in article 22 of Law 11/2016 for the creation of the agency.
The award ceremony took place in the Pati de Les Corts and the President of Les Corts, Enric Morera, as well as the members of the Les Corts Board were present.
On this occasion, the Activity Report has been delivered in digital form through a pen as well as a QR code from which the document can be easily downloaded. In this way, the AVAF contributes to the reduction of paper consumption and economic spending by adhering to the 2030 sustainability commitments
The Report includes the activity carried out by the Agency in 2020 in the area of ​​training, prevention and documentation; the legal and protection area of ​​the complainant; analysis and research; administration, recruitment and human resources and communication.
After the ceremony of delivery of the Report, the director of the AVAF, Joan Llinares has attended to the media and has highlighted some of the most important points developed by the Agency during a year 2020 that despite being marked by the COVID crisis -19 has been more intense and has registered greater activity for this body since it began its operation at the end of 2020.
Thus, in the area of ​​training, the Agency has offered training to more than 800 people in all the activities it has organized and in which it has collaborated, emphasizing one of the main functions entrusted to the Agency for the prevention of fraud and corruption and creating a culture based on ethics and public integrity.
Regarding the complaints received during the year 2020, they reached the figure of 226 and 85% of them were presented through the Complaints Mailbox, which has become the main channel for informing the Agency of acts and events that can be constitutive of fraud and corruption in the Valencian public administrations.
Regarding the subject matter of the complaints filed, in 32% of the cases they are in public procurement, which represents a significant increase compared to 2019, where these complaints represented 25%. 64% of the most reported public administrations were local and 51% of them are in the province of Valencia.
With regard to the protection of people who report corruption, the AVAF received 35 requests and 24 people have been granted the status of protected person, which places the Valencian Community as a benchmark when anticipating the transposition into the Spanish legal system of the European Directive 1937 / 2019 of whistleblowers, informants or whistleblowers of corruption better known as the Whistleblowers Directive.
The Director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, has stated that “this Activity Report includes all the work carried out by AVAF staff in their different areas during 2020 and is a reflection that despite the difficulties arising from the pandemic situation have not been an obstacle to carry out their functions of investigation, prevention, training and protection of the whistleblowers ”.
“I encourage you to consult the Report, a document of more than 200 pages in which the work developed over these 12 months appears and which is the confirmation of the consolidation of the Agency as a body in the fight against fraud and corruption both nationally and internationally. And as an example of this international recognition is that for the first time, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) under the European Commission has requested the collaboration of the Agency for an operation against fraud and corruption developed in the Valencian Community ” added Llinares.

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Executive Summary of the 2020 report