Press release - Antifraucv

May72021

Fourth meeting of the Participation Council of the Valencian Antifraud Agency

Valencia, April 29, 2021.- The Participation Council of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) has held its fourth meeting since it was constituted in October 2019. The Consell is made up of civic and social organizations that work against the fraud and corruption and have among their purposes the transparency of public activity, good governance and the defense of the rights of citizens in the area of the Valencian Community.

In this fourth meeting of the Participation Council, the functional directorates of the AVAF were presenting to the participating entities the data collected in the AVAF Activity Report corresponding to the year 2020.
The Report includes the activity carried out by the Agency in 2020 in the area of training, prevention and documentation; the legal and protection area of the complainant; analysis and research; administration, recruitment and human resources and communication.
For his part, the director of the AVAF, Joan Llinares highlighted to the participating entities the increase in activity during a year marked by the COVID-19 crisis.
The different directions of the Agency were solving the doubts that the participants raised and also collecting the proposals that were formulated from these entities.
The meeting was held virtually and the following associations and entities participated:
• Foundation for Justice
• Tactical Whistleblowers
• COSITAL Valencia
• Observatori Ciutadà Contra la Corrupció (OCC)
• Transparency International Spain
• Valencian Association of Consumers and Users (AVACU)
• Spanish Association of Obliged Subjects in the Prevention of Money Laundering (ASEBLAC)
• International Baltasar Garzón Foundation (FIBGAR)
• Warning against Corruption, Whistle Blower
• Senior Program Officer of the Open Society Initative for Europe (OSIFE)
• Civic Action against Corruption
• Platform for Honesty (PlxH)
• Ciutadana Castelló Platform for Justice and Against Corruption
• Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (GESTHA).
• University of Murcia
• World Compliance Association

Publication date: 04/29/2021

May72021

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency in Benetússer

The municipality of l’Horta Sur was the framework for the third conference in 2021 in which the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, within the existing collaboration agreement with the Vice-Rector for Territorial Projection and Society of the University of Valencia, participates in the UNISOCIETAT initiative , which aims to develop training activities for good governance and citizenship in the Valencian territory.

The professor of Commercial Law at the University of Valencia, Jaume Martí Miravall, gave a conference on the changes that the financial system, the credit market and the stock market have experienced in recent years, in which reference was also made to the extraordinary measures adopted to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference was followed by students from the UNISOCIETAT program from Benetússer and other towns in l’Horta Sur, and generated an intense and active debate among the attendees about the consequences that the legislative changes of recent years had on the financial security of citizens. Likewise, the attendees were interested in the functions and activities of the AVAF in the prevention and fight against fraud and corruption; questions that were answered by the representative of the AVAF, Anselm Bodoque, head of the Agency’s Training Service.

Publication date: 04/29/2021

May72021

The Supreme Court has prepared the appeal of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency against the request for investigation files in progress

Valencia, April 23, 2021.- The Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community has issued an order in which it agrees to have the cassation appeal filed by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency ready. against judgment 198/2020 and by which the parties are summoned to appear within thirty days.
The appeal presented by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency is filed against the sentence by which the AVAF is obliged to deliver files that are currently under investigation to the parliamentary groups that request it.
The AVAF has always defended that the delivery of investigation files that are open and in progress goes against, as established by its regulatory Law, the duty of confidentiality and very especially because it endangers the development and success of its own investigative work by putting uncovered facts and actions that are being investigated at that time and gathering evidence based on its nature as a public authority and its powers in the fight against corruption, which also affects political parties which fall within its scope of intervention.
Likewise, if the Agency had to deliver the investigation files without the investigation having yet completed, it would be revealing in many cases, directly or indirectly, the identity of the complainants and collaborators in the investigation, as well as those others that may be being investigated, with the repercussions and reprisals that this could entail affecting their constitutional rights, which must be guaranteed. The Agency maintains that its investigation files can only be handed over to the judicial authority.
The delivery of said files to a political group goes against in addition to the position maintained by the Public Prosecutor’s Office itself prior to the opinion of the aforementioned sentence 180/2020, Directive 2019/1937 for the protection of whistleblowers, and the Declarations that has been approving the European Network of Integrity Authorities and Whistleblower Protection (NEIWA) made up of specialized public authorities representing 21 European States and whose objective is to promote and safeguard integrity in their respective States.
The Agency has never been against accounting for investigative actions when they have been completed. Proof of this is the publication of its final resolutions on its website. Nor has he been opposed at any time to transferring any other documentation or file that is related to the administrative operation of the entity; as is being done with the delivery of all fixed cash expenses, reports, contracts, etc., which have recently been requested by a parliamentary group.