Nov32022

The AVAF teaches the course “Integrity and prevention in public management and contracting in the Valencian Community” for officials of the administration of the Consell de la Generalitat, through the IVAP.

Valencia, November 3.- The AVAF has given the fourth edition of the 20-hours course “Integrity and prevention in public management and contracting in the Valencian Community”, at the Valencian Institute of Public Administration, with sessions on October 20, 21, 25, 27 and November 3, 2022.

Joan Llinares, director of the Agency presented the course at the session on October 20. Subsequently, the students selected by the IVAP had the opportunity to learn about the situation of corruption and the fight against fraud in the national and international context, as well as an analysis of the situation in the Valencian Community and regional regulations, in the presentation by Anselm Bodoque Arribas, head of the AVAF Training Service.

The session on October 21 was the turn of the presentation of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption in the Valencian Community by the director of Prevention, Training and Documentation, Víctor Almonacid Lamelas. Prevention was highlighted as the first phase of the anti-fraud cycle and training as one of the preventive mechanisms for risks that can lead to irregularities that undermine the well-being of citizens.

Irene Bravo Rey, head of the AVAF Prevention service, gave two of the five training sessions. Prevention and integrity in public procurement were the common thread of the first training session. Beyond the criminal compliance systems, the ISO 37301 standard and the current requirements for the protection of EU funds linked to RRF, Irene Bravo highlighted title III of the new law on transparency and good governance of the Valencian Community that imposes integrity frameworks with a minimum content, incorporating a good part of the amendments presented by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.

In the session of October 27, Irene Bravo presented the latest recommendation of the AVAF, prepared by the Prevention service “The execution of contracts in the key of public integrity” 

The control of the execution of the contracts is an obligation imposed by our positive law and the aforementioned AVAF recommendation aims to:

i) identify the main risks contrary to integrity during the life of a contract;
ii) emphasize the most frequent red flags in the daily life of Valencian institutions;
iii) pay special attention to emergency recruitment;
iv) analyze the essential figure of the person responsible for the contract; i v) propose the main prevention and public integrity mechanisms.

In the last session of the course, on November 3, 2022, a workshop was held based on the #DocuforumAVAF, facilitated by Anselm Bodoque Arribas, head of the Training service, and Pilar Moreno García, AVAF training technician. The documentary “Corruption: Harmful Organism” by Pandora Box allowed the students of the Generalitat Valenciana course to learn first-hand about the situation of whistleblowers of corruption and the need to exercise protection against them, to avoid reprisals. “Conflict of interest” was the second documentary viewed, on this occasion, produced by the Audiovisual Workshop of the University of Valencia. Public employees delved into the recommendation made by the AVAF to learn in detail about this risk of corruption in the public administration.

We want to thank the Valencian Institute of Public Administration for the collaboration with the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency for carrying out this course.

Nov32022

ISTEC and the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency sign a collaboration agreement to develop a framework for integrity and public ethics

Burjassot, October 25, 2022.- The commercial company Infraestructures i Serveis de Telecomunicacions i Certificació (ISTEC), pending the Ministry of Finance and Economic Model of the Generalitat Valenciana, and the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency have signed a collaboration agreement for the implementation of activities to prevent fraud and corruption and the promotion of ethics and public integrity.


The agreement was signed by the managing director of ISTEC, Juan Alegre Sanahuja, and by the director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, atISTEC’s facilities in Burjassot. This public company constitutes as a telecommunications operator to provide electronic communications services to operators controlled by public administrations .


Among the actions contemplated by the agreement is to comply with the requirements of the European Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report on infringements of Union Law, with the recognition by ISTEC as an external channel of their complaints the Complaints Mailbox of the Agency and adheres to it ; as well as the Order of the Ministry of Finance and Public Function 1030 of September 29, 2021 on the obligation to equip itself with Anti-Fraud Plans.

 

In order for the Complaint Mailbox of the Agency to act as an external channel of denunciations of ISTEC thisentity undertakes to include in a visible place within its website, or any other support it deems appropriate, the link of the AVAF Complaints Mailbox together with the clear and precise information about its function and purpose.

 

In addition to the external whistleblowing channel, the Agency will collaborate with ISTEC for the implementation of its internal complaints channel, in order to comply with other requirements of the European Directive.

 

ISTEC also undertakes to approve its own Integrity Plan that will have the collaboration, assistance and exchange of information by the Agency. This Integrity Plan shall contain an institutional declaration of integrity; incorporating institutional integrity into strategic planning; the regulation and management of conflicts of interest; the training of ISTEC personnel in integrity or the promotion and dissemination of the culture of ethics and public integrity, among other issues.

 

The general director of Infrastructures i Serveis de Telecomunicacions i Certificació (ISTEC), Juan alegre Sanahuja, has highlighted “the importance of having the knowledge and means of the AVAF to develop a solid social structure of integrity and fight against fraud and thereby strengthen the confidence of society in the proper use and management of public funds by the public sector”.


For his part, the director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, has declared that “the signing of this agreement with ISTEC is added to the one we reached a few months ago with VAERSA and both show how the Valencian instrumental public sector wants to provide public integrity frameworks in the exercise of its functions which will result in the creation of higher levels of ethics and public integrity that are a guarantee for the all citizens”.

Nov32022

The professor of Political Science, Manuel Villoria, joins the Ethics Committee of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency

Valencia, October 27, 2022.- The professor of Political Science and Administration of the Rey Juan Carlos University, Manuel Villoria, has been registered as anexternal member of the Ethics Committee of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.


This incorporation completes the maximum number of members that this Committee can have and is made up of three people external to the AVAF and one person chosen from among the Agency’s own staff.


Antonio Penadés and Mª Luisa Cuerda were elected as external members of the Committee in February and Manuel Villoria is now incorporated. All three have been appointedfor a period of four years on the proposal of the AVAF Board of Directors.


The person chosen from among the Agency’s own staff was chosen by vote and has fallen to Amparo Martí Puertes, head of the Support and Expertise Unit of the Research area.


In the case of Antonio Penadés Chust is also a member of the Agency’s Participation Council, thus complying with the provisions of article 35 of the Code of Ethics and Conduct, in sections 1 and 2, which states that the Committee will be made up of people outside the AVAF, one of them being at least a member of the Consell de Participacion.


For her part, Mª Luisa Cuerda Arnau is Professor of Criminal Law specializing in fundamental rights at the Jaume I University of Castellón while Manuel Villoria is Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Rey Juan Carlos University.


With the appointments of these people, Article 6.3 is also complied with, which states that the Committee will be composed of a maximum of four people, three of them external from among professionals of recognized prestige in the field of the defense of public ethics, integrity and transparency.


On February 10, 2022, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency approved the Code of Ethics and Conduct for its staff that includes the ethical principles and values of good governance that must inform all the actions of the Agency and will regulate the impartiality, confidentiality and conduct that staff must necessarily observe, especially with regard to conflict of interest.


Chapter IV of the Code provides for the establishment of an Ethics Committee to ensure the proper application of the Code and to assist in resolving any disputes that may arise. Once the people who will be part of this Ethics Committee were appointed, it was constituted last week.
Among the functions of the Ethics Committee are to ensure compliance with the Code of Ethics and Conduct: to promote its dissemination and internalization by the recipients; inform about the doubts or queries that may arise in the cases of interpretation of the Code; deal with the internal complaints referred to in the Code; make recommendations on non-compliance with the Code or produce an annual report explaining the degree of compliance with the Code.


The Code of Ethics is available on the Agency’s website and can be accessed through this link:

https://dogv.gva.es/datos/2022/02/18/pdf/2022_1132.pdf