The Regional Ministry of the Presidency and Public Administrations has clarified that 228 files that were pending to be initiated in the extinct Office of Prevention and Fight against Corruption and that refer to complaints from between 2021 and 2024 will continue to be processed in the corresponding bodies.
Sources from the department headed by Antònia Estarellas have explained that these procedures will continue to be processed by the General Inspectorate of Quality, Organization and Services and will not lapse, as the councilor had stated during an appearance in Parliament.
During the appearance requested by the PSIB in the Committee on Institutional and General Affairs, Estarellas has stated that with the liquidation of the Office under the transparency law, the 228 files mentioned would have expired. He also clarified that, apart from these, some 300 files have been handed over to the Parliament for safekeeping, while two that were underway are being processed as agreed.
Complaint of lack of transparency
During the appearance, Estarellas has again defended the liquidation of the Office for its lack of transparency and for implying a duplication of functions, while the PSIB has accused the Executive of bringing opacity to the institutions. “It is the modus operandi of the PP, to cover up possible cases of corruption,” he concluded.
In relation to the files pending initiation, the Regional Ministry has pointed out that the inspection of services has raised several legal doubts. In the first place, which are the competent administrations by reason of the object of the complaint to which the files have to be sent. And secondly, what measures must be adopted to preserve the confidentiality of the files or whether the persons who filed the complaints must be given a hearing before these complaints are forwarded to other administrations.
Regarding the first question and the competent administrations, it has been noted that the Independent Authority for the Protection of Whistleblowers has not yet been set up. For this reason, the inspection proposes that the Internal Information Systems of the Administrations denounced be transferred to carry out an investigation of the facts denounced and, if necessary, propose the appropriate corrective measures.
Complaints relating to the Autonomous Administration and its autonomous bodies, the competent body will be the General Inspectorate for Quality, Organization and Services. In order not to saturate the action of justice with complaints that may not be well founded, the files will be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office or to the Court of Auditors in those cases in which the reading of the complaint and the attached documentation indicate indications of criminality or accounting responsibility.
In relation to the second issue, the Inspectorate has proposed that complainants be given a hearing before the referral of complaints to other public administrations, so that they may present their arguments or oppose the referral of their complaints.
