The tender period for the contracting of the psychological care service for whistleblowers of corruption of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is now open

València, March 5, 2024.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has published on the Public Sector Procurement Platform the tender notice for the contracting of the psychological assistance and care service for people who whistleblow corruption.

The Law on the creation of the Agency and the regulation governing the Statute of the Whistleblower of Corruption include the right to psychological support for the person reporting corruption, which also appears in Law 2/2023 regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory and anti-corruption breaches. Specifically, article 37 of this law specifies psychological help among the measures to support these people. This law was enacted in transposition of European Directive 2019/1937, which in its article 20.2 provides that Member States may provide support measures to whistleblowers, including psychological support.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency was the first entity in Spain to offer protection to whistleblowers and at the moment 37 people (one of them legal entities) have been granted the Protection Statute. In the 7 years of experience that the Agency’s staff has accumulated in the care of protection complainants, they have seen how many of these people have been forced to receive psychological treatment in the difficult situations experienced as a result of filing a complaint.

The pressure to which whistleblowers of corruption are subjected is manifested both in the professional sphere, with situations of harassment or mobbing, and in the personal and family sphere.

In order to offer the best psychological care to these people, the Agency puts out to tender the contracting of this service after carrying out a preliminary market consultation, since there is no background that serves as a reference in relation to psychological care for protection whistleblowers.

Contractual services

The contract includes three types of services that will be part of this new service. On the one hand, the psychological support service itself for whistleblowers of corruption, which will consist of a personal and direct support treatment for the person, telematically or in person of up to a maximum of 15 sessions of between 45 and 50 minutes each. In any case, this treatment would cease if the complainant was receiving psychological treatment from the public health system.

The second of the benefits refers to the assistance and accompaniment in the advice and interviews that the Agency’s staff maintains with the complainants in meetings that will last a maximum of 1 hour and a half.

And the third and last of the benefits refers to advising the Agency’s staff in charge of the protection of whistleblowers of corruption to offer them guidelines and tools that help them improve the care of these people with a maximum of 2 sessions per month.

The contract has a duration of 1 year and estimates that 30% of the protected persons, i.e. 10 people, will benefit from this service. The total cost of the contract is 14,883 euros and the deadline for submitting bids ends on March 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m

You can find all the information on the Public Sector Procurement Platform at the following link:

https://contrataciondelestado.es/wps/portal/!ut/p/b0/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfIjU1JTC3Iy87KtUlJLEnNyUuNzMpMzSxKTgQr0w_Wj9KMyU1zLcvQjS42dTYtCLAzNI3JUDQLMc7zM3UoNgh1tbfULcnMdAd3eBsE!/

One year has passed since the approval of Law 2/2023 on the protection of whistleblowers

106 protocols signed and 302 heads of information systems in the Valencian public administrations

  • Internal information systems are key tools for the prevention of fraud and corruption in public administrations 
  • The Agency has signed 106 collaboration protocols with city councils, provincial councils and public companies to help them comply with Law 2/2023 on the protection of whistleblowers of corruption 
  • 301 public administrations have submitted to the Agency’s Register those responsible for their internal information system

València, 22 February 2024.- It is now one year since the approval by the Spanish Parliament of Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of people who report regulatory infractions and the fight against corruption, which includes among its obligations that administrations and public bodies have an internal information system.

The purpose of this internal system is to ensure that possible conduct or irregularities that may be followed up can be reported within the organisations themselves.

The internal information system is made up of three elements: an internal channel (mailbox) where information or complaints can be collected; a procedure that regulates how the information or complaints received will be handled, and, finally, the designation of the person who will be responsible for the management and processing of the complaints and information.

Those responsible for internal information systems can be both a natural person and a collegiate body that will be appointed by the governing body or body of the administration, which will have a period of 10 working days from the appointment to communicate it to the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, which is the body designated in the Valencian Community to manage the Register of Heads of Internal Information Systems.

The Law established a deadline of June 13, 2023 for public administrations and bodies to communicate to the Agency who were the persons responsible for their Internal Information Systems. In the case of municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, the deadline ended on 1 December. To date, 302 bodies have complied with this procedure of notifying the Agency of those responsible for internal information systems, a procedure that can be carried out through the Agency’s electronic office.

Among the municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, 48 of the 102 municipalities obliged to comply with the procedure. By provinces; in Castellón, 5 of the 12 municipalities obliged to do so have presented their leader; in Valencia 28 out of 53 and in Alicante 15 out of 37.

In the case of municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, 188 of the 440 obligated to do so have communicated their head of the internal information system. By provinces, in Castellón 57 of the 123 municipalities; in Valencia 98 of the 213 municipalities and in Alicante 33 of the 104 municipalities.

Among the rest of the bodies obliged to present their internal communication managers, 8 associations have already complied with this procedure before the Agency; 14 public bodies and commercial companies in the local public sector; 13 professional associations; 10 foundations, consortia, public bodies and commercial companies of the instrumental public sector of the Generalitat Valenciana; 6 universities and university foundations and 5 consortia, among others.

In the case of the provincial councils, only the Provincial Council of Valencia has complied with the obligation to present its internal information manager.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency also created its own information system and appointed the person responsible for the internal information system in June 2023.

According to the Law, failure to comply with the obligation to have an Internal Information System can constitute a very serious, serious or minor infringement depending on the circumstances and can be sanctioned with fines ranging from 1,000 euros to 1 million euros.

With the aim of helping public administrations in complying with the requirements set out in Law 2/2023, not only with regard to compliance with the implementation of internal information systems, but also with the requirement to have external complaint mailboxes or the design of anti-fraud plans, the Agency has signed 106 collaboration protocols with city councils and public companies,  including the 3 provincial councils and the 6 statutory institutions.

In the event that an administration or public entity is interested in signing this type of protocol with the Agency, it can request it through the following email: jurídico@antifraucv.es