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

Oct272022

The Agency participates in a conference that analyzes the need for integrity and transparency in public performance

#TrainingAVAF

The Agency participates in a conference that analyzes the need for integrity and transparency in public performance

Alacant, October 27, 2022.- The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency participated in the conference on public employment, integrity and transparency organized by the Generalitat Valenciana and the University of Alicante.

The rector of the University of Alicante, Amparo Navarro, and the Minister of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality, Rosa Pérez Garijo, were in charge of opening the conference.

The objective of the conference was to address the rules that regulate public employment, among which is the Valencian Civil Service Law, which states that the tasks entrusted to public servants must be carried out according to the principles of objectivity, integrity, neutrality and transparency which constitute a code of conduct within a system of institutional integrity.

The conference included a round table moderated by Josep Ochoa in which José Antonio Ivars Bañuls, intervening secretary of the Llutxent City Council, participated; María José Cervera Pérez, Director of Administration and Human Resources of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency; María José Moles Cerezo, lawyer of the Social Security Administration and head of the Legal Service at the INSS of Alicante, and Francesc Vañó Beneyto, manager of the UA have explained their experiences in public administration.

The closing conference dealt with “The recent evolution of the public function in Spain: rights, duties, responsibilities, public ethics and transparency” by Miguel Sánchez Morón, professor of Administrative Law at the University of Alcalá de Henares, who presented by Juan José Díez Sánchez, Professor of Administrative Law (UA).