Corruption goes beyond large cases and trials in which politicians and former regional presidents are seen testifying before a court. The annual report presented this Tuesday by the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF), Joan Llinares, depicts how local administrations (the smallest and closest to citizens) are where the most abuses and irregularities are committed.
The global summary presented today underlines that the Agency received, in 2022, 453 complaints in 2022 compared to 359 in 2021, an increase of 26%. Of these, the report collects, 60% of the complaints are confined to the field of local administration. In addition, they deal with the same topic: “44% of the complaints (201) refer to human resources management”, specifically, to personnel selection processes. Already last year, Llinares warned of the problems in opposition to the Local Police.
In this line, this Tuesday, the director of the AVAF has not hesitated to describe the irregularities in the selection processes as “one of the worst corruptions that can exist”. “Giving a salary for life to a person who does not meet the conditions that the Constitution contains of merit and capacity, is a corrupt practice that has no criminal liability”, he has lamented.
In this context, the report indicates that up to the year 2022, 46 protection requests have been submitted to the agency and 29 protection statutes have been granted. Of these, 79% of the people protected by the Agency are so with respect to local administrations; 65% of the people protected are men and 35% women.
The status of the whistleblower is one of the commitments of the Agency that was launched after the change of Government in the Generalitat as a mechanism to prevent whistleblowers from suffering intimidation, pressure, denial of rights or any type of reprisal.
In the press conference after the presentation of the report, Llinares wanted to denounce attempts by the Benidorm City Council to “intimidate” five officials of the institution who appeared at the consistory to request documentation and against whom the municipality sued, although the complaint was filed.
The director of the Agency has indicated that the Benidorm City Council (governed by the PP) is “the one that reiterates the most” in its breaches of the agency’s recommendations and that it has “a clearly reactive attitude”. Llinares has also made ugly responses “out of place” from some departments of the Valencia City Council, the latter in the hands of the left.
