Nov102022

Institutional meeting of the Agency with the Economic and Social Committee of the Valencian Community

Castellón, November 2, 2022.- The director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, met in Castellón with the President of the Economic and Social Committee of the Valencian Community, Luis Arturo León, with the aim of establishing institutional relations between both organizations.

As a result of this meeting, several avenues of collaboration have been opened that will materialize in the coming months in a framework agreement.

The Economic and Social Committee is a consultative body of the Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana and of all public institutions of the Valencian Community in economic, socio-labor and employment matters.

Nov92022

The interuniversity course “Prevention of risks of corruption in public management” at the University of Alicante ends.

#TrainingAVAF

The interuniversity course “Prevention of risks of corruption in public management” at the University of Alicante ends.

Alicante, November 8, 2022. The University of Alicante hosted the last of the sessions of the first Interuniversity Course on the prevention of corruption in public management that the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has given to elected management personnel, technical staff of administration personnel and services (PAS) and the members of the ethics committees of the five public universities of the Valencian Community.

The course began on June 7, 2022 at the Universitat de València, and continued in July with a conference at the Universitat Politècnica de València. In September the activity took place at the Universitas Miguel Hernández in Elche, while in October the session took place at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló.

The last of the sessions was held at the University of Alicante. Public integrity and the detection of the most common risks was addressed in a dynamic workshop where the almost 300 participants (in person and online) played a prominent role in the session, by continuously formulating reflections and questions and viewing various documentaries.

“Corruption: harmful organism” produced by Pandora Box, through micro patronage, was the first of the documentaries seen by the attendees. The tape made it possible to see first-hand testimonies of whistleblowers of fraud and corruption and to publicize the work of the AVAF in protecting whistleblowers and investigating complaints.

Courage, hope, admiration, honesty have been the words with which some of the participants in the session have described the attitude of the whistleblowers. Although, they have also highlighted the anger and indignation produced by verifying the situations experienced and exposed by the whistleblowers who appear in the documentary.

Where is it reported? What protection do whistleblowers receive? Can you have advice? Is there any kind of training on these issues for people who make decisions in institutions? Is anonymity guaranteed in complaints or alerts? These have been some of the questions formulated by the participants and that were answered by the AVAF in the conference in Alicante.

The planning of public management. Good governance tool, the documentary produced by the University of Valencia and the AVAF, was screened to highlight the importance of strategic planning in all public institutions.

The screening of this documentary revealed, in accordance with the opinions of the participants, the need to systematically deepen and develop in all administrations and administrative levels the culture of strategic planning and the dissemination and exhaustive knowledge of organizations among all the staff who work in it. also highlighting that the absence of planning leads to improvisation and increases the risk of incorrect or fraudulent practices.

Anselm Bodoque, Pilar Moreno and Marita Oliver, from the Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, together with Cristina Fernández, a technician from the Observatori Ciutadà Contra la Corrupció and a researcher from the University of Salamanca, have formed the team of teachers for the conference in Alicante.

The interuniversity course has been taught by staff from the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency and the Services Inspection of the Generalitat Valenciana over five days. Each of the Valencian public universities has hosted one of the sessions throughout the months of the learning experience.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency thanks the external speakers of the AVAF, Delia Cuenta and José Luis Gaona, from the General Inspection of Services of the Generalitat Valenciana, and Cristina Fernández, researcher at the University of Salamanca for their predisposition and collaboration.

The celebration of this interuniversity course has been possible thanks to the great work of the PAS training and streaming services of the five Valencian public universities, the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Jaume I University of Castelló, the Universitat Miguel Hernández d’Elx and the Universitat d’Alacant. The AVAF thanks the people responsible for these services, their work, willingness to collaborate and the infrastructure provided so that the sessions were carried out perfectly.

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.