The Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency has dozens of investigations open against city councils, provincial councils and the Generalitat for many other cases of irregularities in the management of public resources. Among them, the one that opened months ago on the Alicante Provincial Council’s Trade Bonus stands out when the president was Carlos Mazón and that has affected the president of the Alicante Chamber of Commerce himself, Carlos Baño. In addition, it also investigates town councils such as Benidorm or carried out reports on the mayor of Orihuela who spent six years without going to work. All these investigations could be in danger due to the management of the new director elected by PP and Vox, Eduardo Beut, and who is dismantling the anti-corruption entity. Thus, between purges of the director himself and abandonments, more than 20% of the Agency’s staff has left their positions to return to their civil servant positions due to the impossibility of continuing with the investigation work.
Even the Agency’s press chief has been fired by Beut, who currently does not have anyone who can respond to the media’s requests. In that sense, elDiario.es has contacted the director of Anti-Fraud to obtain explanations about the departure of up to 10 workers from the Anti-Fraud Agency since their arrival before the summer. To questions from this medium, Beut did not answer, although he did call for a future meeting. “Let’s see if next week I can call you to a meeting,” the Antifraud director replied to this medium. That meeting with journalists was going to be held in September, but was postponed while Eduardo Beut has been dismantling the internal counterweights and emptying the entity of its content. Beut has not given explanations for any of its legislative changes that have ended the complaints mailbox and the Ethics Committee, among other modifications that leave the Agency with practically no power to act.
The Anti-Fraud Agency has also stopped offering legal assistance to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, a function highly valued by the judiciary and whose reports have been key in corruption cases that have affected the former president of the Generalitat Eduardo Zaplana (Erial case) or the family. of the former mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá (Azud Case).
According to the information collected by elDiario.es, in addition to the head of Investigation Gustavo Segura and the lawyer Teresa Clemente, eight other people have left the Anti-Fraud Agency in the nearly six months that Beut has been director. This is the head of the press, who has returned to her position in a town hall, and the person who managed the Agency’s Library and Documentation Center, a unique initiative in Spain where documents, books, treaties and legal documents on Transparency and fight against corruption. These four people have been dismissed by Beut himself.
Due to pressure from Eduardo Beut and these dismissals, a lawyer, an investigator from Gustavo Segura’s team, an investigator from the Experts Unit and secretary of the Ethics Committee have also left the Anti-Fraud Agency in recent weeks; a prevention technician and the administrator of the Agency, a key figure as it is its legal representation. The Anti-Fraud Agency has approved a maximum staff of 53 people, but only 47 positions had been filled. The positions in this entity are occupied by civil servants who requested the transfer from other administrations.
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