Words by President of the Government at inauguration of Office to Recover and Manage Assets

Madrid

Mr Minister, State Secretary, Under-Secretary, ladies and gentlemen, members of the media,

As you are all aware, one of the most outstanding measures in the field of democratic regeneration and the fight against corruption is the new regulation of the seizure of assets, empowering instruments to swiftly recover all those goods that offenders are obliged to return, To achieve that, today we inaugurate this office, known as the Office to Recover and Manage Assets that are proceeds of crime, in order to obtain the best return from these actions and contribute to compensating society for the consequences of crime.

The fight against organised and cross-border economic crime and, in particular, corruption offences, means that this constitutes a primordial State goal, not only to punish those who are convicted but also - and this is very important and where this office comes into play - to recover all those assets that are proceeds of these offences and allocate them to goods of public interest or of a social nature.

The most important goals of the office we inaugurate today are formally the following: firstly, to more effectively fight crime, avoiding offenders being able to retain the assets that have obtained precisely through the commission of their criminal activity. That is the key goal; it is a question not only of criminal sanctions for offenders but also that this person cannot benefit, at a later date, from the proceeds of the crimes committed.

Secondly, it allows the investigation of the assets related to the criminal activity with the aim of proceeding to their seizure and the localisation of the goods.

Thirdly, another goal of this office is to reduce costs deriving from the management of the goods seized, reverting the situation to making is profitable. It is currently standard practice for the proceeds of crime that are seized to remain in warehouses or in different locations and, in the end, these proceeds give rise to a major expense for the public authorities, albeit in their mere maintenance.

It is also a question of decongesting the courts and tribunals, removing from them a bureaucratic task, even though this is tied into the process.

And finally, another major objective is for the product of the crime to revert to social ends and to strengthen the institutions engaged in the fight against organised crime.

If I had to summarise what we are doing today, I would do this in a twofold manner: firstly, creating an office so that no offender can enjoy what he has stolen, and hence, search for the assets and seize them and make them available to the office itself; secondly, to use the assets seized, in other words, the proceeds of the criminal activity, for social ends; first and foremost, to the Offices for Victim Care; secondly, to the regional governments, also to implement care programmes for victims; thirdly, to hand over goods to NGOs and not-for-profit State bodies for use in programmes to care for victims; fourthly, to the State law enforcement agencies, to the State Tax Agency, to the State Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Institute for Toxicology and Forensic Science, and to forensic science institutes; and finally, to international bodies.

I will close now. Within the broad raft of measures we have adopted during this term of office on the matter of democratic regeneration, we believe that this was one of the most important demands by society. I repeat, this is not only a case of applying the Criminal Code, but also of recovering the proceeds of crime and making them available to society for social care and aims.

Thank you very much.