“The social impact of public corruption trials may have been positive, since the economic hole caused has led many people to protest, to realize that they are being governed by people who did not take into account the interests of social majorities. We are talking about a phenomenon that is harmful to the democratic state that weakens the protection of general interests, the public budget and basic services, such as health, education and the right to housing”, notes Jorge Correcher.

The informative manual, with the collaboration of the Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality Council of the Valencian Government, explains the different types of criminal offenses; the role of the Jury Court in crimes against the Public Administration; the economic impact of corruption, which amounts to hundreds of millions of euros; as well as the different Valencian cases, organised by typologies: prevarication, bribery, embezzlement of public funds and negotiations prohibited to civil servants, among others.

The expert advocates prevention as a mechanism to prevent public corruption. In this sense, transparency is a key factor. “The answer is not to punish through criminal law, but the interesting thing would be to be able to prevent such behaviours with a good transparency policy, that is, through administrative preventive mechanisms.” These are measures in which prevention does not imply the threat of punishment. To strengthen the processes of exposure and public participation, review administrative acts, or, a very significant case, the Valencian anti-fraud agency.

The paper publication of the Observatory includes 32 court cases that in 2018 were already tried and sentenced, and of which 30 are convictions. The Observatory was published on the Internet in 2018, and a more informative orientation has now been added to understand how public corruption has impacted society.

Among the most prominent cases analysed by the publication, Jorge Correcher highlights the Emarsa case, with an economic impact of almost 24 million euros and the consequent privatisation and rise in the price of water, or the Blasco case, with an economic hole of approximately 2 million euros, of which there is still a part to judge. Also the Fitur case, a piece of the Gürtel plot, in which its main members used the Department of Tourism, in collusion with the councillor, to favour certain companies in the contracting of services.