On November 5, a total of 55 second-year students of the Degree in Journalism at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) participated in a Docufòrum activity organized by the university together with the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.
The objective of this activity is for students to debate the phenomenon of corruption as a preventive measure while seeking to create public ethics and integrity.
The activity consisted of the screening of the documentary “Corruption: harmful organism” in which the effects that cause corruption are collected to later establish a debate on different aspects of corruption in which personnel from the prevention area of the Valencian Antifraud Agency participated. .
The students have participated actively by answering a questionnaire before and after, as well as asking questions about the operation and follow-up by the agency of the complaints that reach this institution.
The activity has been coordinated by the professor of the Political Science area, Victoria Rodríguez Blanco and the director of the Prevention and training area of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Silvia Vèrnia and has been carried out in a dual way with 40 students participating through Google Meet and the rest in person.
The Valencian Antifraud Agency publishes a recommendation on the need for planning to prevent corruption in public administrations
Valencia, November 3, 2020.– The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has published a recommendation that emphasizes the importance of planning as a key tool to prevent the risks of corruption in public administrations.
Among the main risks of corruption detected is precisely the lack of planning of public policies and their management since without such planning the general interests cannot be prioritized, prevailing the culture of improvisation and of the “urgent” over the ” important”.
Likewise, the lack of planning leaves open the door to other risks such as conflict of interest, unjust enrichment or the lack of control of the activity of public institutions.
Planning is of vital importance also in crisis contexts such as the current one that we are experiencing with COVID-19 since planning offers us a strategic vision that allows us to reallocate resources in those areas of activity that, because they are considered “essential services”, must be reinforced .
This new AVAF recommendation, in addition to pointing out the value of planning as a basic tool for the prevention of corruption, provides some clues on how this planning should be carried out, pointing out the consequences caused by the lack of it and affects the need to evaluate the plans and take measures in the face of detected deviations between what is intended and what has been achieved.
The Participation Council of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency approves a decalogue of principles to protect people who report corruption
Valencia, October 30, 2020.- A total of 14 entities and associations belonging to the Participation Council of the Valencian Antifraud Agency have approved a decalogue of principles that should govern the protection of whistleblowers and corruption alerters.
These ten principles have been elaborated by the working group on the protection of whistleblowers and were submitted to the Plenary of the Council for approval.
These principles affect some of the aspects that most affect the protection of complainants, such as the need for advice, the installation of safe and accessible complaint mailboxes, guaranteeing confidentiality or the prohibition of retaliation.
Other principles collected refer to the figure of the repentant person; the admission of anonymity in complaints or alerts, or the establishment of sanctions for retaliators.
This decalogue also refers to aspects that should be included in the work of transposition into the Spanish legal system of the European Directive 2019/1037 for the protection of people who report violations of European Union law known as the “Whistleblowers Directive”.
Thus, issues such as the delimitation of the twelve areas of protection or the need for the protection strategy to be extended to both the public and private sectors are proposed. The Council will send the decalogue to the working group of the Ministry of Justice that has begun the work of transposition of said directive.
The entities that have signed this decalogue are the following:
• COSITAL Valencia
• Observatori Ciutadà Contra la Corrupció (OCC)
• Foundation for Justice
• Tactical Whistleblowers
• Transparency International Spain
• Valencian Association of Consumers and Users (AVACU)
• Spanish Association of Obliged Subjects in the Prevention of Money Laundering (ASEBLAC)
• International Baltasar Garzón Foundation (FIBGAR)
• Warning against Corruption, Whistle Blower
• Civic Action against Corruption
• Platform for Honesty (PlxH)
• Ciutadana Castelló Platform for Justice and Against Corruption
• Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (GESTHA).
 | Editable note in ODT format |
 | Editable note in DOC format |
 | Decalogue of principles to protect people who report corruption |