In 2021, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) formalized a framework collaboration agreement with the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) for cultural, educational and scientific collaboration. The central and priority objective of the Agency’s training activity is the training of Valencian citizens in civic ethics.

Within the framework of this collaboration, on November 28, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) participated with a conference aimed at students of the subject of Evaluation and Quality Systems and Budget Management of the Master of Cultural Management of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), in collaboration with the University of Valencia (UV), taught by Professor Antonia Ferrer Sapena.

The objective of the conference was to raise awareness about the importance of public integrity and ethics to prevent fraud and corruption in the field of culture and cultural management.

The Master of Cultural Management at the UPV, in collaboration with the UV, is the only one in Spain that serves key sectors in cultural management such as the management of museums and cultural spaces, performing arts, cultural tourism, and ethnological heritage. and popular culture.

This Master’s Degree offers plural training capable of covering the different social, political, institutional and economic sectors that constitute the framework in which cultural management is included. Its purpose is applied research to the cultural sector and training for professional development in cultural occupations and companies and in public cultural management.

37 students participated in the activity, mostly of Spanish origin but also foreign students, with different regulatory frameworks on cultural management; but with a similar general casuistry of problems regarding the prevention of corruption and fraud in cultural management.

The first part of the AVAF intervention corresponded to the head of the Training Service, Anselm Bodoque, who made a brief contextual reference to the need for public strategies against corruption, and to the general functions and activities of the Agency.

The core part of the activity corresponded to the director of the AVAF, Joan Llinares, who focused on the particularities of cultural administrative management, and the main risks of fraud and corruption that can occur in cultural management.

Based on his experience in cultural management, he focused his intervention on the public model of museums and museum collections, highlighting different aspects such as cultural employment and the impact of culture on the Spanish economy as a whole, to reach the deontological framework and focus in aspects of the ICOM code of ethics for Museums.

Subsequently, he developed the main risks of fraud and corruption that can occur in cultural management, emphasizing different situations of conflicts of interest, illustrating his presentation with various examples of malpractice that have ended up prosecuted.

The participation of the students was very intense and active, insisting on issues that have to do with their work experience in the field of cultural management and, in particular, the problems related to patronage, public procurement, value and traffic. of cultural assets.

Much of the debate among the students focused on the difference in problems and forms of management depending on whether cultural management was public or private management, and the differences in culture regarding cultural management and the social punishment of corruption between the different countries.

The director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency concluded his speech by thanking the Polytechnic University of Valencia for the invitation and wishing all the students much success in their professional future as cultural managers.