Joan Llinares, director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, at the institution's headquarters in an image from October 2021. Mònica Torres
Civic Action Against Corruption has submitted a letter to the Board of Les Corts Valencianes in which it challenges the candidacy for the direction of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, presented by the Spanish Association of Managers for Public Administration (AEGAP), because this entity does not comply the requirements.
AEGAP has presented the former delegate of the Tax Agency in Valencia Eduardo Beut to replace Joan Llinares, who ends his seven-year term in May.
The other candidate is the current Director of Analysis and Research of the Agency, Gustavo Segura, proposed by Acción Cívica itself, the Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupción and the Fundación por la Justicia.
The three entities were the promoters of Joan Llinares at the time.
The first candidacy generated controversy when it was announced in January due to its past links with the PP when Eduardo Zaplana was president of the Generalitat between 1995 and 2002, according to Compromís.
Chaired by the lawyer and writer Antonio Penadés, Acción Cívica recalls in its writing that the law creating the Anti-Fraud Agency of 2016 provides that “candidates for the position will be proposed to Les Corts by social organizations currently working.” against fraud and corruption in the Valencian Community and by parliamentary groups.”
And it considers that the failure to comply with the requirements demanded by law is twofold.
First of all, it is not “a social organization.”
“According to its statutes, which can be found on its website www.aegap.com, this entity is an association with the purpose of defending the professional interests of students and graduates in GAP (Public Administration Management),” indicates Acción Cívica.
In the association's own cover letter, which is attached to the letter, “its president states that they are a group of people who come together 'around the idea of improving the knowledge and prestige of the GAP career and promoting the recognition of its professionals.”
Secondly, the anti-corruption entity argues, AEGAP “does not work against fraud and corruption”, it is not dedicated to prosecuting corruption.
“In fact, in its statutes the word “fraud” or “corruption” does not appear even once.
Its purposes, of course very lawful, are strictly corporate in nature,” the letter adds.
For all these reasons, the entity requests that the Les Corts Board “proceed to reject outright the candidacy presented by the Spanish Association of Managers for Public Administration for not meeting either of the two requirements established by art.
26.4 of Law 11/2016″.
Previously, Acción Cívica asked Les Corts to consult the file of the process that is being developed to find Llinares' successor.
The Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupció also questioned this newspaper last month about the suitability of the promoter of Beut's candidacy.
“We have serious doubts that it complies with the regulations, because we have been looking at its statutes and its objectives and we have not found that among its purposes is the fight against corruption, one of the requirements established by the law,” said Rafael Mauri, your president.
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The process opened in the Cortes to find a replacement in the direction of the Anti-Fraud Agency is involved in controversy.
Beut's candidacy was immediately questioned by Compromís and later by the PSPV-PSOE.
Both recalled that the Treasury inspector was appointed by the Zaplana government as advisor and vice president of the Industrial Participations Portfolio.
He also revealed that he was a partner in a bookstore in Valencia of Juan Francisco García, who was chief of staff of the then president of the Generalitat.
In addition, Compromís pointed out that Inmaculada Luz Collado, president of AEGAP, “is linked to the PP.”
The popular ones claimed to be unaware of Beut and Vox, their Government partner in the Generalitat, proposed “talking about the location, reconversion, disappearance or whatever” of the Agency, which set off alarms about the future operation of the entity.
In such a way that various entities, not only Valencian, such as the Haz Derecho Foundation, based in Madrid, expressed their concern about the future of the Anti-Fraud Agency.
“The Agency has been an uncomfortable entity for all parties with corruption problems, but that is its mission and it has been recognized as such by the European Commission,” said the general secretary of Hay Derecho, Elisa de la Nuez, to this newspaper.