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:
