Catalonia's Anti-Fraud Office does not sanction the dismissals of two whistleblowers

The Catalonia Anti-Fraud Office has gone nearly two years without opening sanctioning procedures for the reprisals against two whistleblowers from the Josep Carreras Institute. Labour trials are not scheduled until 2027.

The Catalonia Anti-Fraud Office has not opened any sanctioning procedure for the dismissions of two whistleblowers from the Josep Carreras Research Institute, as acknowledged in a parliamentary response to the CUP, dated October 13. The information, reported by The Objective, details that the agency has not even initiated preliminary actions despite having recognised both as protected informants.

The response, which answers 16 questions, indicates that the protection files remain open and that there are two pending litigations before the Social Courts. Anti-Fraud asserts that it has not opened procedures for the dismissals, but does not specify when these lawsuits will be resolved.

The problem is the timeframe. According to Law 40/2015, the statute of limitations is interrupted when a sanctioning procedure is initiated and notified to the affected person. As this step has not been taken, sanctioning the possible reprisals would be more difficult if they are ultimately proven. The agency also does not clarify how much time remains or what measures it plans to take to prevent this.

The whistleblowers approached the Office on November 26, 2024 to report alleged economic and institutional irregularities, as well as cases of workplace harassment. Since then, they received protection, but both ended up being dismissed. Their claims are scheduled for trial in April and November 2027.

The first dismissal occurred on January 13, 2025. Four days later, Anti-Fraud requested the reinstatement of the worker and that the request be forwarded to the Board of the institute. The request did not succeed, and shortly thereafter, the second whistleblower was dismissed.

The councillors Olga Pané, of Health, and Núria Montserrat, of Research and Universities, are involved in the case as they are the first and second vice-presidents of the Board. Both received individual letters from Anti-Fraud, which in June wrote again to the members of the body, including its president, tenor Josep Carreras, and the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol. Neither of the two workers regained their positions.

Anti-Fraud acknowledges that it cannot generally compel compliance with its requests and that only the courts can order reinstatement. However, in the same response, it admits to having opened three sanctioning procedures for reprisals in other matters, two of which are suspended pending rulings. This means that the pending litigations did not prevent it from initiating files in those cases.

Anti-Fraud claims to have held 12 meetings with the whistleblowers and three with representatives of the Institute. According to sources familiar with the procedure, cited by The Objective, none of those meetings were held with the research team, but rather with the informant protection unit, which deals with their personal and work situation.