Jul92019
Signatura conveni entre Táctical i l'Agència

Signing of the collaboration agreement between the Valencian Antifraud Agency and the Whistleblower Tactical Association

Today, July 9, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, represented by its Director, Joan A. Llinares, and the Tactical Whistleblower Association, represented by its President, the systems engineer Mr. Hervé Falciani, have signed a collaboration agreement to establish a permanent channel of communication and joint work in order to improve efficiency in meeting objectives of common interest.

It should be noted that Tactical Whistleblower is a non-profit association established in Spain that was born with the vocation of promoting ethics and institutional security, both public and private through research and the application of technologies such as “blockchain” and others already developed or on process of development.

The Valencian Antifraud Agency considers among its objectives the realization of preventive plans that reduce the risks that, in the field of administrations and the public sector, may involve fraudulent or corrupt bad practices.

Thus, studies are being carried out on the potential of technological infrastructures that allow increasing the effective control of aspects such as contracting, subsidies or concessions, thanks to the traceability and transparency in the public bidding processes and the derived expense, especially in everything that refers to the verified and real execution of works, services and supplies as well as the effective fulfillment of the obligations related to public subsidies.

This Framework Agreement, without economic content, from which legal instruments can be derived for carrying out activities, establishes in its clauses the modalities of collaboration and the way in which they will be established.

A joint monitoring commission is also created. The Agreement is valid for four years, with the possibility of an extension of four additional years.

Among the collaboration modalities of the Agreement the following should be highlighted:

•Establish collaboration for the introduction, development and implementation of technological applications that facilitate the fight against fraud and corruption in the areas of contracting, subsidies and public concessions.

• Cooperate in training programs for technical, administrative and service personnel.

• Collaborate jointly in the areas of technical cooperation and technology transfer, as well as in training matters for analysts and specialized personnel in data analysis and in other technological fields.

• Work together so that the implementation in all its public administrations of this traceability technological tool is contemplated in the legal framework of the Valencian Community, once it is finished.

It is important to highlight, from the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, that the celebration of this Agreement with the Tactical Whistleblower Association has a special relevance, considering that Tactical Whistleblower is chaired by Mr. Hervé Falciani, who is known to be a complainant of fraud and corruption. and that he is actively collaborating with the justice of several countries, including Spain, contributing his knowledge about millionaire fraud.

The so-called “Falciani List” has served, since 2010, to uncover fraud mechanisms, which has facilitated the identification of alleged tax evaders and corrupt plots, having recently been validated by the Constitutional Court as a means of legal evidence.

Likewise, the National High Court considered it proven that the information provided by Mr. Falciani has served to reveal criminal situations and that without his collaboration an effective investigation would not have been possible. Mr. Falciani has been an essential element in explaining how the dense network of money used in corruption works.

For the Valencian Antifraud Agency it is a privilege to have collaborators such as Mr. Falciani and the association that he presides to develop their functions of prevention, investigation, training and fight against fraud and corruption in the Valencian Community.

 Agreement
 DOGV num. 8604 / 1.08.2019
 BOCV num. 18 / 31.07.2019
Jul32019

Approval and publication of the Regulation of operation and internal regime of the Agency

In the DOGV of July 2, 2019, by Resolution of the Director of the Agency has published its Operating Regulations and internal regime of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community.

The preparation of this Regulation is the result of two years of work by the legal services and the Agency’s staff as a whole, and for its preparation it was submitted to a public hearing, in accordance with the provisions of Article 133 of Law 39 / 2015, of October 1, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, which regulates citizen participation in the procedure for the elaboration of norms of legal or regulatory rank.

In the preamble of the Regulation, the consultations made to affected persons, institutions and organizations are detailed.

The decisive observations and proposals have been taken into account in its preparation.

It is worth highlighting the participation, through allegations and contributions from the Prosecutor’s Office, the Professional Association of the Magistracy, the Valencian Inter-Union Association, the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, the Ministry of Transparency, Social Responsibility, Participation and Cooperation, as well as dedicated civic organizations to the fight against fraud and corruption, as well as to various citizens in the elaboration of the Regulation.

All the contributions of interest have led to an important legal debate on the content and nature of these Regulations.

Law 11/2016, of November 28, creating the Agency, extraordinarily innovative in the matter, required that it be completed by a Regulation that develops and establishes the principles of the aforementioned founding law.

The Regulation should highlight the development of the following aspects that are considered most outstanding:

– The legal nature, legal regime and purpose of the Agency are established, as well as its scope of action and its guiding principles.

– The approval of a code of ethics and conduct and an ethics committee is foreseen for all its personnel.

– The reserved nature of their actions is established to avoid damages to the investigated persons or the investigated entity and the complainants, informants and whistleblowers.

– Its organizational structure is established by creating the Management Committee, a collegiate body that assists in the management of the Agency and, in the event of a conflict of interest, replaces it.

– A Participation Council is created as an advisory and consultative body of the Agency and a channel for participation by civil society and experts within the Agency’s scope of action to improve the performance of its functions and purposes. Its purpose is to promote the Agency’s relationship with civil society and the public as a whole, to whom the management must be accountable.

– They carry out their training, prevention and documentation actions. These functions are one of the pillars of the Agency’s functions. The Entity should be conceived both as an element of investigation and the fight against fraud and corruption, as a tool for prevention and training.

– The analysis and investigation procedure is regulated, with all the necessary guarantees.

– The mechanisms for the protection of the complainant are established, the person complaining is defined and the duty of reserve and protection of these persons is established. Likewise, their rights are regulated and the procedure for granting this statute is established.

– The sanctioning procedure and its principles are established, as well as the procedure for its resolution.

– The regime of personnel at the service of the Agency is also regulated, who, in any case, must be a career civil servant. It should be noted that the Agency staff, in the exercise of their inspection functions, have the status of agents of the authority and enjoy special protection in the exercise of their functions.

– The Regulation develops the economic and budgetary regime established in its creation law and its patrimonial and contracting regime.

– The Regulation establishes a system of accountability and transparency of the public activity of the Agency. One of its fundamental tools is the Transparency Portal on its website.

– The right to public information is also regulated for any citizen, both individually or on behalf of any legally constituted organization.

– Regulates the complaints box, which is a secure telematic channel for presentation, as well as information or communications, even when the information received is anonymous. It also operates as a virtual office of the public employee to allow him to confidentially communicate administrative irregularities of which he may have knowledge in the exercise of his functions.

-All data processed by the Agency are subject to current data protection regulations.

In conclusion, it can be stated that with the approval of this Regulation, the legal architecture necessary for the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency to have the regulatory tools that allow this Entity to carry out its functions is completed.

Jun282019
Tercer encuentro agencias y oficianas antifraude

III Meeting of the Network of Anti-Corruption Offices and Agencies of Spain

The third meeting of anti-corruption agencies of the Spanish state has taken place at the headquarters of the Municipal Office against Fraud and Corruption of the Madrid City Council. It has brought together the heads of the regional and local institutions: Carlos Granados, director of the Municipal Office against Fraud and Corruption of the Madrid City Council; Miguel Ángel Gimeno, director of the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia; the director of the Prevention and Fight Against Fraud and Corruption Agency of the Valencian Community, Joan Llinares; the director of the Office of Prevention and Fight Against Corruption in the Balearic Islands, Jaime Far; the director of the Analysis services of the Office for Transparency and Good Practices of the Barcelona City Council, Rosa Maria Sánchez and Gemma Calvet, director of the Transparency Agency of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

The meeting has shared the experiences of control of the execution of contracts and the control and justification of subsidies, as well as the main strategies and research experiences on these aspects and the main recommendations most common to the administrations subject to your supervision. The most effective ways to promote the implementation of corruption prevention programs through bidding and control of the execution of public contracts have been studied.

The issue of the protection of corruption whistleblowers and the future transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblower have been discussed.

The introduction of special conditions of compliance programs in administrative clauses has also been examined.

Likewise, the common problems in the deployment of the different institutions have been shared.

Among the agreements of the meeting, the creation of a working group to establish the minimum criteria for a good protection of whistleblowers of corruption directed at the state legislator.