Whistleblower Protection shields researcher who reported eight years of corruption at CNIO, which denied her safeguards
Ana Isabel Hernández, former company committee president, reported internally and to the Ministry of Science that the leading cancer research centre was purchasing "useless things like hot tubs". Now, the Independent Authority grants her whistleblower status
AIPI protects CNIO whistleblower after eight years of ignored irregularities
The Independent Authority for Whistleblower Protection (AIPI) has granted Ana Isabel Hernández, a researcher at the National Centre for Cancer Research (CNIO), the status of "whistleblower entitled to protection". According to El Mundo, Hernández has been reporting irregularities at the institution for eight years, which is now under investigation by the National Police and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
Hernández, former president of the CNIO company committee, requested protection within the institution itself on 15 April. A few days later, scientific director Fernando Peláez informed her that the institution could not grant it to her. The AIPI has reached the opposite conclusion upon verifying that Hernández meets the legal requirements to be entitled to such protection.
Hot tubs and unexplained expenditures
It all began in 2017, when Hernández won elections to the company committee at a time when dismissals of researchers were anticipated. Upon accessing the centre's accounts in her capacity as committee president, she found "a lot of strange items", as she told El Mundo at the time. The CNIO was allocating funds to equipment that, in her view, would never be used at the centre, including "hot tubs".
Hernández made her reports internally without receiving a response. She also approached the Ministry of Science, then under the direction of Pedro Duque, equally without result. She subsequently took the matter to the courts with the support of Vox, the party she approached, according to her own words, "because they were the only ones who listened to me"; the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Report by former Operations Director reactivates the case
The decisive impetus came when a former senior official at the CNIO, the Operations Director, filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office approximately a year ago. The 120-page document was prepared together with the Compliance Director over eight months through a forensic audit and was accompanied by recordings of employees admitting to irregularities. It estimated the alleged misappropriation at between 25 and 30 million euros over 17 years, with the supposed involvement of then manager Juan Arroyo.
El Mundo published that report exclusively last November. Among the elements it contained was that one of the CNIO's subcontractors had been registered at the address of former manager Arroyo. Then manager José Manuel Bernabé also provided additional evidence and subsequently resigned, telling the Police that he felt "terrified" by the irregularities found. The Prosecutor's Office tasked the Unit Against Economic and Financial Crime (UDEF) with an investigation in which Hernández is currently collaborating.
From institutional ostracism to rehabilitation
During the years she maintained her reports, Hernández, in her own words, lived through a situation of harassment by those now under investigation, even telling El Mundo last November that she had "feared" for her "integrity" and had experienced "genuine fear". As investigations progressed and the institution accumulated resignations, her standing was rehabilitated amongst her own colleagues.
The situation became tense again when oncologist Mariano Barbacid mentioned her publicly in an interview in ABC. Following that episode, Hernández requested safeguards from the CNIO again; Peláez denied it once more. It is now the AIPI that formally grants her that protection, whilst the investigations by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the UDEF continue their course.
Source: El Mundo