Mar292022

The protection of AVAF whistleblowers among the issues of most interest to university students in the docuforum held at the University of Valencia.

#TrainingAVAF

On March 28, the training activity took place in the subject of Administrative Law II, in the third year of the Law degree, thanks to the collaboration of Professor Ylenia Díaz.

The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency continues the activity of the University Docuforum in Valencian universities with the aim of bringing the debate on the importance of the fight against fraud and corruption closer to university students and empowering them to become protagonists in the eradication of this scourge of democracy.

The students asked more than forty questions and reflections of their own, after viewing the documentary “Corruption: harmful organism” that were answered during the training activity, by Anselm Bodoque, head of the AVAF Training Service.

The absence of a public state agency similar to the AVAF and the lack of policies against corruption in Spain as a whole similar to those developed in the Valencian Community in recent years, have been some of the issues that have most concerned the students; as well as the mechanisms for the protection of whistleblowers.

The students have also shown a special interest in knowing the work of the public servants of the local administration with national authorization and how they could help reduce bad practices in management, fraud and corruption. The technicians of the Agency’s Prevention Service, Carmen Domínguez and Mayte Gascó, explained the daily work and the main difficulties of the people who occupy this type of job and the value of their work in defending public integrity and the general interest.

Youth, who are undergoing a specialized training process and are called upon to occupy responsibilities in public management and in society, have a decisive value in building a strong culture of public ethics and integrity.

If you are a university, secondary or high school teacher and you are interested in having the Docuforum AVAF training activity carried out in your subject, do not hesitate to contact the Training Service of the Valencian Antifraud Agency through formacion@antifraucv.es  

Mar252022

Dialogues at Avaf with Pilar Batet

The Head of the Institutional Relations, Communication and Participation Unit of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Amalia López Acera, interviews Pilar Batet, Head of the Contracting Service of the Castelló Provincial Council.

You can also listen to it on our channels:

Spotify ➡️ https://open.spotify.com/episode/4T006ZKWr1cUidqkzixdNO

ivoox ➡️ https://www.ivoox.com/dialogos-avaf-pilar-batet-audios-mp3_rf_84592779_1.html

Mar252022

Institutional integrity and complaints mailboxes, the contributions of the AVAF, in the conference on “Crime prevention in the instrumental public sector” of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Model of the Generalitat Valenciana.

#TrainingAVAF

On Thursday, March 24, 2022, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency intervened in the conference organized by the General Directorate of the Public Sector that took place in the auditorium of the Administrative City 9 d’Octubre of València.

The day was followed by 70 people in person and more than 300 connected through the GVA channel.

AVAF’s interventions focused on the analysis of the legal framework in matters of public integrity by Irene Bravo, head of the Prevention Service, and the need to have general regulations for complaint mailboxes in public sector organizations, through the intervention of Gustavo Segura, Director of Analysis and Research of the Agency.

Irene Bravo detailed the obligations established for public administrations in Order HFP/1030/2021, of September 29, which configures the management system of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, such as, for example, the declaration institutional, DACI, risk self-assessment, as well as the separation of management, control and payment functions.

In this sense, the AVAF advocates for the specific control of the management of public funds against any type of irregularity with the aim of protecting the public service mission of the public administration and for the development of fraud indicators and alerts, red flags, which act as a risk detection tool in organizations.

The benefits of integrity plans for the instrumental public sector were the subject of special attention, highlighting the need to detect the areas of activities and procedures likely to incur risks, and promote strategic planning practices, among others.

The content of the AVAF Guide was highlighted, aimed at building a public integrity system, reinforcing citizen trust, which goes beyond recommendations for proper management of European funds and is aimed at improving the integrity mechanisms of the Public Management.

Finally, Irene Bravo exposed some of the specific risks that can develop in the instrumental public sector in general and in terms of contracting, as well as in the management of human resources and subsidies.

In another order of things, the Director of Analysis and Investigation has focused his intervention on the complaint mailboxes and information systems, and has done so by comparing Directive 2019/1937 and the draft law approved by the Council of Ministers of the past March 4, 2022 by which the transposition of the same to the Spanish legal system begins.

The preliminary draft establishes the possibility of submitting anonymous communications, this being the highest level of protection that exists for the whistleblower/informant in terms of their identity (art. 7.3 APL).

The existence of a complaints mailbox is imperative for all public sector entities with their own legal personality. Among the issues of the bill, it is worth highlighting:

  • The preference in the use of the internal or external complaints box will be marked by the whistleblower, with his decision when communicating a risk of irregularity.
  • The administrative body or governing body of each entity and obligated body will be responsible for the implementation of the internal information system, after consultation with the legal representation of the workers (art.5 APL).
  • The management of internal information systems may be carried out within the entity or body itself or by going to an external third party. (art.6 APL) All internal information channels will be integrated into the internal information system.
  • The States may provide that several municipalities share internal complaint channels or be managed by joint municipal authorities, provided that these shared internal channels are differentiated and autonomous from the external complaint channels, requiring national regulatory development.
  • The draft bill regulates that municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants may share internal information systems, investigations and procedures, both among themselves and with any other public administrations in the territory of their autonomous community. (art. 14 APL).

The conference aimed at the heads, managers and internal auditors of the organizations that make up the Valencian instrumental public sector, was inaugurated with the presence and interventions of the Minister of Finance and Economic Model, Vicent Soler, and were coordinated by Isabel Castelló, director General Public Sector and Heritage.

The session was closed by the director of the Agency, Joan Llinares, who thanked all the interventions in the morning and their importance in advancing prevention measures in such important matters as cybersecurity, labor regulations, the fight against corruption through public integrity and complaint mailboxes.