Spanish Whistleblower Facing Jail for Revealing Corruption Looks to EU

Roberto Macías, the Spanish whistleblower who revealed one of the biggest labor corruption scandals in Spanish history and whose subsequent two-year prison sentence is on hold while he appeals his conviction, has invoked a provision in the European Union's new Whistleblower Directive. The new law doesn't come into effect until the end of 2021.

More than half the EU's states, including Spain, still offer little to no national protection for whistleblowers, The New York Times wrote in a report about Macías’ case.

The Directive adopted in 2019 requires organizations of more than 50 employees to set up internal channels for reporting wrongdoing. Disclosures have to be investigated within three months..

Macías met with a similar fate for his leaking of files as another whistleblower, former public servant Ana Garrido, whose revelations brought down a previous government. Both faced major prosecution as well as death threats.

The EU has been slow to bring stronger protections despite being pushed by groups such as Australia's Blueprint for Free Speech, whose Executive Director, Dr. Suelette Dreyfus, testified before the European Parliament for strong measures and works to set up secure digital dropboxes for journalists and whistleblower sources.

With the EU slow to react, whistleblowers are left twisting in the wind, uncelebrated for uncovering massive corruption which a 2016 RAND Europe study found costs as much as $990 billion ($1.167.7 trillion) annually, the figure determined by the EU implementing a full procurement system.

That's far higher than the 120 billion euros ($141.54 billion) estimated by a 2014 European Commission report, while a 2017 accounting put the figure at a relatively paltry 5.8-9.6 billion ($6.84-$11.32) for the cost of weak or nonexistent whistleblower laws.

Macías is one of the first to test the EU's political will to protect whistleblowers. In his appeal, he argued the law obligates Spain to safeguard rather than punish him, after he was convicted for revealing workplace secrets.

“This case should allow us to see how Europe’s political commitment to fighting corruption translates into practice in a country like Spain,” Fruitós Richarte i Travesset, a former Spanish judge who is now a law professor at the Rovira i Virgili University told the paper.

No Trust

He added that Spain “needs to change not only its legislation but also its mentality, because every advanced society should encourage citizens to denounce fraud.”

For four years, Spain’s lawmakers have failed to decide on a common strategy to strengthen anti-corruption. In June Parliament rejected a bill which left-wing parties claimed would not be strong enough to curb corporations and individual fraud.

The anti-corruption agency Agencia Valenciana Antifrau said of the phenomenon that, “An important part of this immense flow feeds the black economy by creating dirty fortunes that end in tax havens.”

Failing to fight political fraud and protect whistle-blowers undermines democracy “because when people do not trust their institutions, they do not have faith in democracy,” Edmundo Bal, whose Ciudadanos party brought the proposal, said during a parliamentary debate.

Spain has in the past few years had a number of major scandals exposed by whistleblowers, and while few have been prosecuted many have said they faced ostracism for speaking out.

Macías, 40, worked for four years as an official for the General Union of Workers, one of Spain’s two main unions and said he became suspicious about activities and downloaded thousands of computer files from his workplace.

He was laid off in 2012 when the union downsized, and a few months later leaked the files to a Spanish newspaper, setting off a scandal implicating several officials for the alleged misuse of public money.

While he sent the files anonymously, the union tracked him and filed a criminal lawsuit arguing the law required confidentiality in the workplace and that he should have complained to the police or a court.

The prosecution of union officials has gone more slowly, five of them awaiting trial while he told the paper that, “My only crime has been to reveal a secret kept by my union that is called corruption, which is something for which I never even expected to get prosecuted.”

He added: “My motivation to fight corruption has come from deep inside my conscience and my heart. I had been working for a union that was pretending to care for the unemployed while stealing money that was meant to help them.”