In 2020, 226 complaints were submitted to the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency

Current Information, Press release

Valencia, February 23, 2021.– The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is finishing preparing the corresponding Activity Report in 2020 which it will have to deliver to the Valencian Courts before March 31, as set out in its regulations.
Among the first data that have been extracted from the analysis of the work carried out are those corresponding to the number of complaints filed with the * AVAF, which in 2020 has achieved the figure of 226. In 2019, 168 complaints were filed by the The number of complaints filed has increased by 34% despite the complicated situation registered by the COVID-19 crisis.
Other data collected is the location of the public administration object of the complaint and thus we see that of the total complaints filed 115 of them are against public administrations located in the province of Valencia, which represents 51%. In the province of Alicante there have been 70 complaints (31%) and 15 in the province of Castelló (7%). The remaining 26 complaints (12%) correspond to the Generalitat Valenciana and dependent entities, the scope of which encompasses the entire Valencian Community.
Regarding the channel used to file complaints, of the 226 filed, 191 have been made through the complaints mailbox, that is, 85%. The Agency’s complaints box has become the main complaint tool, especially because it allows the possibility of submitting the complaint anonymously.
Since its launch in 2018, the number of complaints filed through the mailbox has been increasing progressively and thus in the first year of operation (2018) it was used in 54% of cases to go to 76% in 2019 and finally in 2020 to achieve the figure of 85%.
The director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, has declared that “this significant increase in the number of complaints filed is the confirmation that more and more people are aware of the existence of a body that fights against fraud and corruption in our Community”.
“Likewise, the work carried out in the Agency with the investigation of the cases will be reinforced when it is the citizens who resort to the * AVAF and have knowledge of situations that may constitute fraud and corruption, for which reason they have the trust of the public is our greatest recognition ”, added Llinares.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency publishes all its final investigation resolutions on its website

Press release

Valencia, February 9, 2021.- The Director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, has announced that the AVAF has published all the final investigation resolutions since it began its activity in 2017.

The announcement was made during his appearance in the Valencian Courts to present the Agency’s Activity Report for the year 2019; an appearance that had been delayed due to problems arising from the current pandemic situation.

The AVAF presented the Activity Report for the year 2019 in the registry of the Valencian Courts on March 30 within the legally established deadline and despite the difficulties involved in its completion due to the confinement situation that existed at that time in the country .

During his intervention before the Committee on the Economy, Budgets and Finance, Llinares took a tour of the activity carried out by the Agency during 2019 in relation to the areas of prevention and training, legal analysis and protection of complainants, and analysis and research.

It was at this last point that Joan Llinares announced that the Agency has published all its final investigation resolutions, which are available on the website for public consultation.

This is a total of 51 resolutions, 8 correspond to the year 2017; 14 to 2018 and 29 to 2019. These resolutions have undergone a prior anonymization process to preserve the identity and personal data of the people who appear in said resolutions.

 Editable notee in odt format
 Editable note in doc format
Link to the final investigation resolutions
 Link to the intervention in Youtube

 

The Valencian Antifraud Agency proposes a future National Anticorruption Agency in the public consultation process of the European Whistleblowers Directive

Press release

Valencia, January 29, 2021.- On January 27, 2021, the public consultation period opened by the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Spain ended so that any person, entity, association or public body could present allegations to the transposition of the European Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report infringements of Union law, known as the Whitleblowers Directive.

The first of the allegations refers to the extension of the protection of the complainant beyond the twelve areas listed in article 2.1 of the Directive. The AVAF indicates as an essential area to include that of public administrations, and especially, that of its dependent or linked public sector since it is where there are fewer controls. It also recommends expanding the scope of application to other areas and policies of national legislation, whenever there is a risk that non-compliance with these laws could cause serious harm to the public interest and the well-being of society.

With regard to the question of which public sector entities should be included in the personal scope of the Directive, the AVAF is committed to the broadest possible conception of the public sector.

Given the possibility that Spain receives anonymous complaints, the AVAF indicates that they should be allowed since it is the best tool to protect the person who denounces, informs or alerts of irregularities, according to his own experience through his Anonymous complaints mailbox .

Regarding the existence of internal complaint channels both in companies and in public administrations, the Agency proposes a reduction in the level required to make the introduction of internal mailboxes of 50 workers, with respect to companies, and 10,000 inhabitants for the municipalities. The characteristics of both the Spanish business fabric and its municipalities mean that most of them were exempt from this requirement.

Another of the allegations presented refers to the need to create a National Authority for the Fight against Corruption at the state and supplementary level in those autonomous communities that do not have such an institution. This National Authority would be independent from the public administrations and their public sector and would be attached to the Congress of Deputies.

The AVAF in its writing emphasizes that with the work that is being developed to transpose the European Directive, we are faced with a unique opportunity, and this should not be limited to a minimum adaptation to Spanish internal law, but should be reflected in a ambitious Law for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption.

This future law would not only include the lines established by the Directive, but would endorse the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption of 2003, which was ratified by Spain in 2006, and which have not yet been incorporated into our legal system.

Finally, the AVAF emphasizes that the transposition of the Directive must allow the harmonization of national law with the different autonomous regulations already approved and in force, as well as articulate the coordination between administrative, criminal or any other type of controls and investigations.

It is emphasized that the Valencian legislator anticipated this Directive through the approval of Law 11/2016, which created the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community and that now the Spanish legislator has to regulate on what is already legislated by Les Corts Valencianes.

Editable note in ODT format
Editable note in DOC format