Canary Islands and Asturias, laboratories of the New Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption | Spain

The decision of the government of create a unit of the Attorney General of the State specialized in crimes against public administration He has put on a war footing a sector of the fiscal career, which considers her unnecessary and argues that she will enter confrontation with the special anti -corruption prosecutor Alejandro Luzón. The opposition to this unit has been headed by the Association of Prosecutors —The majority of the career and conservative tendency – and the Independent Professional Association of Prosecutors, both openly faced with Álvaro García Ortiz and that they predict that the new Prosecutor’s Office will overcome with anti -corruption and generate dysfunctions. On the other hand, prosecutors of Asturias and Canary Islands, where this coexistence between the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and specialized sections in crimes such as embezzlement, influence peddling or bribery has been putting into practice years, they ensure that their results are positive and that there has never been a clash of competencies with anti -corruption.

The Superior Prosecutor of the Canary Islands, María Farnés Martínez, admits that it is not enough to understand the Polvarda that is raising in the race the creation of the new unit specialized in crimes against public administration. She was, in 2005, the first anti -corruption delegate in Tenerife; And in 2011, after verifying that as the judges, institutions and citizens knew the existence of that figure and the complaints grew, they decided to create a section specialized in crimes against the public administration (which in Tenerife is called a corruption section). According to the superior prosecutor, this section has become « the perfect complement » to the Special Prosecutor’s Office to fight corruption. « The Special Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for the most complex cases, and these units of day -to -day crimes, but that the citizen also has the right to investigate well, » Martínez says.

While The task of anti -corruption is to investigate the causes of special importance and complexitythe Crimes Section against Public Administration is responsible for those crimes of corruption that are the competence of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, but that instead of falling on generalist prosecutors, they do so on a team specialized in this type of crimes. According to the statistics sent by the Provincial Prosecutor of Tenerife, the Courts of this province opened in 2023 – last year of which there are closed statistics – 70 criminal procedures for crimes against the public administration, of which only three were assumed by anti -corruption. In 2022, 70 also opened and the Special Prosecutor’s Office only took care of one. To this activity are added the preprocessal investigations for crimes of this nature that each year are initiated in Tenerife for complaints of individuals or of different organizations or groups and that in 2021 amounted to 45; in 2022, to 59; and in 2023, at 50.

« I do not see it possible that a Prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office can devote his time to investigate a local police from a municipality for having remained the amount of a fine; a mayor for having hired her niece outside the legal channels; to a fractionation of contracts to award him to an acquaintance and many more crimes that concern the citizen who suffers it, » warns the superior prosecutor of the Canary Islands which seems « reasonable » that there is a prosecutor’s specialized prosecutor’s crimes against public administration. « It is about applying the same criteria that have justified the creation of other specialties, » he says.

This explanation is also the one given by the Attorney General’s Office to justify the creation of the new specialized unit in corruption. The specialized units of the Prosecutor’s Office are teams dependent on the Attorney General that coordinate the action of the Public Ministry throughout the national territory with respect to some types of crimes. They already exist in areas such as violence over women, environment, minors, road safety, computer crime, human and foreign trafficking, hate crimes or human rights and democratic memory.

Each unit consists of a room prosecutor (the highest category in the race) and, normally, two assigned prosecutors, who work to coordinate the action of the Prosecutor’s Office in all territories, supervise the writings of the delegated prosecutors of the autonomous communities and give guidelines to ensure that these crimes are investigated with a common criterion. This structure is what is now extended to the fight against corruption, thinking, above all, in small cases that have their epicenter in municipal governments or provincial deputations and that escape anti -corruption powers.

Sources from the Attorney General’s Office warn that there is currently a “specialization deficit” in corruption matters that contrasts with what happens in other areas, which decreases the effectiveness of the fight against these crimes. « It is intended to facilitate prosecutors to investigate this type of crimes. We believe that the fundamental basis of corruption is there: municipalities, autonomous communities, deputations, officials … and we have no specialization, » these sources emphasize. At the head of this unit will be Emilio Sánchez Ulleda prosecutor with more than 30 years of exercise that has led several very media issues in Catalonia, such as the Palau case or that of 9-N.

The Superior Prosecutor of the Canary Islands also believes that the creation of this unit will mean “a great change” in the investigation of this type of crime when they are the competence of the provincial prosecutors, which will improve the response to this crime, as has happened with the creation of the other units of the Attorney General’s Office. In the Tenerife section, five prosecutors work, who are now headed by the current anti-corruption delegate in that province, Jaime Serrano-Jover. Only he takes the cases assumed by the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Luzón, while the other four depend on the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and deal with corruption cases that are the competence of this. « Any conflict has never occurred between the Territorial Prosecutor’s Office and the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, » says Martínez.

In the Asturias Prosecutor’s Office, crimes against public administration are also processed as a differentiated block for a decade, with prosecutors specifically appointed for these crimes. Sources of the Asturian Prosecutor’s Office indicate that, during 2024, the procedures opened for crimes against public administration increased in that community more than 83% compared to 2023, with a total of 110 judicial procedures initiated, which involves nine initiations per month as average. The greatest number (60), were opened by disobedience of authorities and officials, followed by administrative prevarication crimes (30).

In addition to these judicial proceedings, crimes against public administration monopolize a good part of the investigation proceedings inconcant in the Asturias Prosecutor’s Office. In 2024, 29 were opened, while in 2023 the figure reached 40. Most, for crimes of administrative prevarication. Sources of this body indicate that both in the investigation proceedings directly open in the Prosecutor’s Office and in the procedures followed in the Courts, the most repeated conduct usually responds to possible crimes related to the subject of contracting, either by the irregular subdivision of the works contracts or by the hiring of personnel skipping the principles of equality, merit and capacity. That small day -to -day corruption that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, continues to constitute a true scourge.