The State of Transparency and Public Integrity in Local Entities of Valencia in 2024 Under Review at UJI

Castelló de la Plana – October 15, 2024. The Public Transparency Chair of the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (UJI), together with the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF), organized a conference focused on analyzing the transparency and public integrity of the transparency portals and websites of the municipalities in the Valencian Community in 2024.

 

On October 15, the auditorium of the Doctoral School and Social Council building at UJI hosted the two-hour event, with 160 people attending in person and online.

 

The event was opened by Marta Oller, a representative of the UJI Public Transparency Chair, and Anselm Bodoque, Acting Director of Prevention, Training, and Documentation and Head of the Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency. The Chair emphasized the importance of evaluations in strengthening public integrity in Valencia.

 

Anselm Bodoque, Head of the Training Service at AVAF, presented an in-depth analysis of the integrity system of local entities in the Valencian Community.

 

The core topic of the roundtable and subsequent colloquium was the reality of compliance with transparency and public integrity in Valencian local entities in 2024, which was discussed by several invited speakers:

 

– Jaime Clemente, Professor of Constitutional Law at UJI, presented the results of a 2024 study on the compliance with transparency and public integrity by local entities in the Valencian Community.

 

– Isaac Lara, local development agent at the Torreblanca City Council, addressed the challenges faced by small and medium-sized local entities (PYMEL) in meeting transparency and public integrity obligations.

 

– Pilar Moreno, a technician from AVAF’s Training Service, reflected on best practice strategies and recommendations for improving the integrity system’s visibility among local entities. Among the recommendations were the inclusion of outreach actions in the Anti-Fraud Measures Plan (PMA), involvement of all staff, incorporation of a communication plan in the code of ethics, and easier access to reporting information systems.

 

The event provided an opportunity to analyze the challenges faced by municipalities in terms of transparency and allowed for the identification of areas for improvement and concrete actions to advance the integrity and good governance of local administrations in the Valencian Community.

 

The Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency thanks the ongoing collaboration with the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló and their support in promoting public debate on transparency, integrity, anti-corruption prevention, and raising awareness of public ethics and a culture of rejection of fraud in the public sector, starting from the university classrooms.

 

If you wish to provide specialized training on public integrity and ethics for your public entity, feel free to write to formacion@antifraucv.es.

 

*See UJI’s press release here.

* Photos courtesy of Universitat Jaume I de Castelló.
 

AVAF training on public integrity policies and fraud risk prevention from IVAP

Valencia, 1st October 2024.- The Valencian Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) has counted, one more year, with training given by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF). The course ‘Public Integrity Policies and Fraud and Corruption Risk Prevention’, in its second edition, has been given in the online modality, with a duration of 20 hours and by public employees of the Agency itself.


The AVAF training, given in collaboration with the Valencian Institute of Public Administration, the body responsible for the training policy of the personnel in the service of the different public administrations of the Valencian Community, focused on the institutional system against corruption in Spain and in the Valencian Community, the obligation to develop the Law 2/2023, together with the preventive tools of urgent implementation in public institutions.


The training session began on Tuesday 17 September with contributions from the Directorate of Legal Affairs on the protection of informants. Isabel Climent, lawyer of the AVAF, presented Law 2/2023, regulating the protection of persons who inform on regulatory infractions and the fight against corruption.


Araceli Chana, head of unit of the Directorate, explained the protection system developed by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.


On Thursday 19 September, the Directorate of Analysis and Investigation of the AVAF presented the regulation of the information systems included in Law 2/2023. Miguel Furió, Head of the Analysis and Investigation Service, showed the existence of internal and external channels and the Agency’s complaint management procedure.


Pilar Moreno, AVAF training technician, in the third session of the IVAP course, specified the need for public integrity plans in public institutions and presented the numerous risk prevention initiatives in public management.


The head of the Agency’s Training Service, Anselm Bodoque, developed the consequences of corruption and anti-fraud policies in the international, national and regional context in the session on Thursday 26 September.


The active participation of the students throughout the course culminated with the workshop on the ‘Price of alerting’ and the appropriate management of conflict of interest. Facilitated by Anselm Bodoque and Pilar Moreno, the gift and hospitality policy, as well as the importance of integrity training, allowed for a lively and enriching debate among the participants of the training action.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency collaborates with the Attorney General’s Office in a course on public procurement for 50 prosecutors

Madrid, 27 September 2024.- The Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, was in charge of the inauguration of the course “Approach to fraud in public sector procurement” that took place at the headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office in Madrid. In this act, the Attorney General announced the creation of two new specialized units to combat corruption and valued the collaboration that his institution maintains with the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.

On this occasion, the Agency has collaborated with the presentations “Introduction to public sector contracting” and “Authorisation and control of expenditure in the public sector” given by the head of the Agency’s Support and Expert Specialist unit, Amparo Martí.

The course was directed by the prosecutor Jordi Casas and was organised by the Technical Secretariat of the State Attorney General’s Office, addressing aspects such as the crime of embezzlement after the reform of the Criminal Code of LO 14/2022, the authorisation and control of spending in the public sector or administrative prevarication.

The course, which lasted 2 days and in which 50 prosecutors from all over Spain participated, also had as speakers the prosecutor of the Technical Secretariat of the FGE Antonio Colmenarejo, as well as the professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha Adán Nieto, and the professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the Complutense University Íñigo Ortiz de Urbina.

 

Press release from the Attorney General’s Office:

https://www.fiscal.es/web/fiscal/-/garcia-ortiz-pone-en-valor-la-creacion-de-dos-nuevas-fiscalias-de-sala-para-combatir-los-delitos-economicos-y-contra-la-administracion-publica

Photo: State Attorney General’s Office.