New legal reform has stripped the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) – a key institution central to the implementation of the national and EU whistleblower protection frameworks – of its legal mandate to provide expert reports in judicial proceedings and dissolves the Citizen´s participation Council, dismantling its external oversight framework
Law 5/2025, amending Law 11/2016, reportedly eliminates two core components of the AVAF structure, de facto weakening its capacity to fight corruption; the Agency can no longer draft expert reports for judicial proceedings, as it had done in high-profile corruption cases and the Citizen´s Participation Council, an external oversight body composed of seven civil society organizations, has been formally dismantled.
Key Highlights:
New legal reforms (Law 5/2025) have abolished the Citizen´s Participation Council and eliminates the Agency´s power to draft expert reports for judicial cases.
With no Ethics Committee, no Participation Council, and no independent internal channel, the Agency is now completely lacking on institutional counterweights.
Background
The AVAF was created in 2016 as an independent public body with broad investigative powers, including the ability to produce forensic reports to support judicial and prosecutorial work. The agency quickly became a national reference for its collaboration with the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office in major corruption proceedings.
In addition to its operational role, the AVAF was also notable for its civic accountability architecture, including (1) an internal Ethics Committee composed of external experts (eliminated in September 2024) and (2) a Citizens´ Participation Council composed of civil society groups including Transparency International Spain, Fundación Hay Derecho, Acción Cívica and the World Compliance Association, amongst others.
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