The majority of the Fiscal Council, an advisory body to the State Attorney General, opposed this Wednesday the creation of one of the two new specialized units of the State Attorney General’s Office focused on the fight against corruption that the Government plans to launch. tax sources informed elDiario.es. The creation of these units – one on economic crimes and another on crimes against public administration – is one of the commitments of the so-called Regeneration Plan.
The six representatives of the conservative Association of Prosecutors (AF) and the member of the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF) positioned themselves against the creation of the unit specialized in crimes against public administration. According to him, its constitution is not “justified” and may produce an “overlap of functions” with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, a special body focused on the main cases of corruption and which, unlike specialized units, has a jurisdictional power. function.
Consequently, a text partially correcting the Government’s project was approved by a majority, according to the sources consulted. The three ex officio members: the attorney general; the lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, María Ángeles Sánchez Conde; and the head of the Tax Inspectorate, María Antonia Sanz Gaite, and the two representatives of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF) announced that they would formulate dissenting opinions. In addition, the representative of the APIF, Salvador Viada, will formulate another dissenting voice because he also disagrees with the creation of the economic delinquency unit.
The Government, according to an agreement in the Council of Ministers of July 31, considers “essential” the creation of these specialized units to “pursue the necessary specialization of the tax career” with the aim of “improving the effectiveness of the criminal response to criminal acts which undermine public property and the confidence of citizens in their democratic institutions, particularly in the face of fraud against the public treasury and public corruption.
In this same document, the Executive defends that “it is necessary to extend specialization in these matters to the entire territorial structure of the tax career” to “achieve a true and effective fight against corruption and crimes that damage to the treasure. » . The proposed royal decree provides for the creation of a position of prosecutor of the Economic Crimes Chamber and a position of prosecutor of crimes against the Chamber of Public Administration, as well as two positions of second category designated prosecutors in every matter.
Fiscal sources say the aim is for the work of these specialized units to run parallel to that of the anti-corruption prosecution, which has a jurisdictional function. They explain that these specialized units do not deal with specific cases and are responsible for coordinating the actions of the public prosecutor throughout the national territory in relation to certain specific crimes and for unifying the criteria to be followed.
For example, they already exist in areas such as violence against women, road safety, the environment or computer crime. Fiscal sources say the new chamber prosecutors will mainly focus on corruption cases likely to arise at the local level, while major causes will continue to fall under the responsibility of fighting corruption.
