The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia has collaborated and continues collaborating with several international and European anti-corruption bodies and networks. The Office has, since 2011, been a full member of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) and European Partners against Corruption (EPAC/EACN), the two most significant networks for collaboration and exchange of experiences in preventing and combatting corruption. The Office was a member of the IAACA executive committee until 2016 when it undertook a statute review, and has held the post of vice-president of the EPAC/EACN.
The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia maintains exchange and collaboration relations with leading international bodies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), especially as regards its Convention against Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Academic Initiative (ACAD) in universities and other institutes of higher education. The Office also works with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), collaborating as advisors in the institutional reform of anti-corruption bodies, and with European bodies, in particular the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
Numerous collaboration agreements have been put in place with anti-corruption agencies with similar competences to undertake bilateral actions in the field of corruption prevention and the exchange of good practices. This has often been with the support of the European Commission’s TAIEX platform (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) for pre-adhesion countries.
The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia has participated along with other European agencies in rolling out projects financed by the European Union in the area of prevention of conflicts of interest (HERCULE III programme); prevention of corruption, especially in the private sector (ISEC programme, led by the Estonian Ministry of Justice); the European College of Financial Investigations and Financial Criminal Analysis –CEIFAC – (ISEC programme, led by the University of Strasbourg); and the promotion and exchange of best practices in detection, investigation and sanctioning of corruption in the EU (ISEC programme, 2012), the latter project led jointly with the French Central Service for the Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) and the Romanian Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. The Office has also been a beneficiary of some of these projects.
Network of European Integrity and Whistleblowing Authorities (NEIWA)
The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia is a member of the Network of European Integrity and Whistleblowing Authorities (NEIWA). The Network is made up of authorities from member countries of the European Union, EU candidate countries and countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) that play a central role in the field of protection of whistleblowers (complaints, investigation , protection, support, advice, prevention, education and/or law enforcement).
The EU Anti-Corruption Report of February 2014 which, while highlighting the lack of a comprehensive approach on the part of the Spanish government, specifically mentions Catalonia as an example of good practice for having established the Anti-Fraud Office, a multidisciplinary agency, “the only one of its kind in Spain”.
In addition, the Anti-Fraud Office works with various organisations from civil society, including Transparency International (TI), on projects such as the Transparency Indexes aimed at measuring the level of transparency of municipalities, autonomous communities, provincial councils, parliaments and public companies. Other similar projects include the ENIS assessment of the Spanish National Integrity System, and the Special Working Group on Regulation and Transparency in Lobbying, with its report, in Spanish, entitled “An evaluation of the lobby in Spain: analysis and proposals”.
