La relación entre la auditoría, la corrupción política y la transparencia informativa: un análisis comparativo de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas

Nowadays, public administrations are experiencing a trend towards greater control and supervision as a result of citizen demands and the financial situation of recent years. Specifically, the Spanish Autonomous Communities have suffered greatly from the effects of the economic crisis of 2008 and they have detected a large number of political corruption processes, which has focused the attention of experts. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to evaluate the effect that the level of implementation of external auditing and the degree of information transparency have on political corruption in the Spanish Autonomous Public Administration. To do this, firstly, a review of the current level of implementation of external auditing in the Autonomous Communities, its transparency level and the degree of political corruption at the regional level is carried out. Secondly, an exploratory study consisting of a bivariate analysis and a regression model is performed. The results of the bivariate analysis show that there is a significant relationship between the level of external audit implementation and transparency. However, the regression model indicates that neither transparency nor auditing has a significant influence on corruption, except when we analyze partial audit and transparency indexes since the 2010 PGCP turns out to have a significant effect regarding corruption cases. En la actualidad, las administraciones públicas están experimentando una tendencia hacia un mayor control y supervisión como consecuencia de las demandas ciudadanas y la situación financiera de los últimos años. Concretamente, las Comunidades Autónomas españolas han sufrido en gran medida los efectos de la crisis económica del año 2008 y en ellas se ha detectado un gran número de procesos de corrupción política, lo que ha centrado la atención de los expertos en su estudio. Por ello, el objetivo principal del presente trabajo consiste en evaluar el efecto que el nivel de implantación de la auditoría externa y el grado de transparencia informativa tienen sobre la corrupción política en la Administración Pública Autonómica española. Para ello, se realiza en primer lugar, una revisión del panorama actual del nivel de implantación de la auditoría externa en las Comunidades Autónomas, de su transparencia informativa y del nivel de corrupción política a nivel regional. En segundo lugar, se lleva a cabo un estudio exploratorio consistente en un análisis bivariante y un modelo de regresión. Los resultados del análisis bivariante muestran que existe una relación significativa entre el nivel de implantación de auditoría externa y transparencia. No obstante, el modelo de regresión nos indica que ni transparencia ni auditoría influyen significativamente en la corrupción, salvo cuando analizamos índices parciales de auditoría y transparencia ya que la adaptación al PGCP 2010 resulta tener un efecto significativo respecto a los casos de corrupción.

Needs of the ‘Bilingual Schools' Program in Andalusia Regarding EFL Classrooms and Language Assistants

Since the implementation of Bilingual Education in Spain, research has focused on studying ways to improve the quality of this educational model. However, although there are aspects that threaten its correct functioning and/or implementation, little has been done to find solutions to those issues. Thus, this chapter presents findings from a research conducted in Seville, Spain, and compare them to those of some current studies in different autonomous communities to conclude that some important issues that have been previously reported but have not been solved are the lack of linguistic and methodological training for the stakeholders and time for coordination or planning, and confusion regarding specific information (roles, functions, procedures, etc.), among others. Most importantly, the chapter concludes that a number of actions should be taken by the regional Board of Education and/or schools to improve the quality of the bilingual education offered in Andalusia.

Inclusive Practicum: Creating Networks of Learning and Collaboration between Students, Teachers, and the Faculty of Education

The presented Teaching Innovation project deals with establishment of support, learning and collaboration networks between university and non-university teaching staff. This was done with two fundamental purposes in mind: on the one hand, improving the training of Practicum students through joint reflection and, on the other hand, promoting inclusive education in schools through support networks among teachers. Participants were the Practicum students from the Faculty of Education, specifically students with the major in Special Educational Needs. The project included creation of joint seminars between Practicum tutors of the Faculty, tutors from schools and Practicum students. Moreover, initiating support networks allowed involving two different schools in two Autonomous Communities, which has been a highly enriching experience for all participants.

Pronouncement for the Anaitians and the Metapians

The ϝράτρα for the Anaitians and the Metapians falls under a definite group of archaic and classical Olympian documents, which hand us some of the oracles issued by Zeus; this time, the god orders those communities (otherwise unknown and not belonging to the political community of ‘the Eleans’) to bind themselves in a reciprocal φιλία under penalty of exclusion from his altar. The decidedly imposing dictate of Olympian Zeus, absolute ruler of this φιλία, undoubtedly contradicts the image of his sanctuary as a (politically) neutral place of arbitration of conflicts between the (autonomous) communities living around it.

Tools for social policy management: the SiSo Scale for measuring situations of social difficulty

The design and evaluation of social policies requires information systems that enable social intervention with the people targeted by the programmes and services and that also offer indicators for the follow-up and monitoring of the policies adopted. The article presents the process of validation of a tool for diagnosing situations of social difficulty arising from social exclusion. The scale has been implemented in one of Spain’s seventeen Autonomous Communities and has been selected on the basis of Good Practice under the European Social Fund. Expert judges were consulted for content validity; the metric properties of the scores obtained by the scale were examined and an exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) was performed to study the internal structure. The results show that the scale has adequate levels of content validity, construct validity and internal consistency. The SiSo Scale supplies a synthetic index of Social Position, providing professionals with the technical tools needed to carry out social diagnoses and simultaneously giving valid and reliable information on the social condition of people in a situation of social exclusion, which can guide social policy decision-making.

Analysis of case fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Spanish Autonomous Communities between March and May 2020

Objective The Spanish health system is made up of seventeen regional health systems. Through the official reporting systems, some inconsistencies and differences in case fatality rates between Autonomous Communities (CC.AA.) have been observed. Therefore the objective of this paper is to compare COVID-19 case fatality rates across the Spanish CC.AA. Material and methods Observational descriptive study. The COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) was estimated according to the official records (CFR-PCR+), the daily mortality monitory system (MoMo) record (CFR-Mo), and the seroprevalence study ENE-COVID-19 (Estudio Nacional de sero Epidemiologia Covid-19) according to sex, age group and CC.AA. between March and June 2020. The main objective is to detect whether there are any differences in CFR between Spanish Regions using two different register systems, i. e., the official register of the Ministry of Health and the MoMo. Results Overall, the CFR-Mo was higher than the CFR-PCR+, 1.59% vs 0.98%. The differences in case fatality rate between both methods were significantly higher in Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cataluña, and Madrid. The difference between both methods was higher in persons over 74 years of age (CFR-PCR+ 7.5% vs 13.0% for the CFR-Mo) but without statistical significance. There was no correlation of the estimated prevalence of infection with CFR-PCR+, but there was with CFR-Mo (R2 = 0.33). Andalucía presented a SCFR below 1 with both methods, and Asturias had a SCFR higher than 1. Cataluña and Castilla La Mancha presented a SCFR greater than 1 in any scenario of SARS-CoV-2 infection calculated with SCFR-Mo. Conclusions The PCR+ case fatality rate underestimates the case fatality rate of the SARS-CoV- 2 virus pandemic. It is therefore preferable to consider the MoMo case fatality rate. Significant differences have been observed in the information and registration systems and in the severity of the pandemic between the Spanish CC.AA. Although the infection prevalence correlates with case fatality rate, other factors such as age, comorbidities, and the policies adopted to address the pandemic can explain the differences observed between CC.AA.

Online assessment in higher education during Spanish confinement by COVID-19: The view of students

The purpose of this study is to describe how university students rate the evaluation systems and strategies that have been proposed for use in Higher Education during the period of COVID-19 confinement and online teaching as a result of the coronavirus crisis in Spain. For this purpose, we prepared a descriptive study by means of an online questionnaire, specifically designed on the basis of evaluation and qualification proposals made by REACU (Spain), ANECA (Spain), UNESCO, and the Spanish Ministry of Universities. The results obtained, after applying them to a sample of 1008 students from different universities in Spain, and covering most of the Autonomous Communities (17), indicate that students agree with and value the changes recommended by agencies and agree that the assessment should be flexible, diverse, formative and continuous. On the other hand, their experiences indicate that the Universities have not yet applied some of the suggested recommendations.

The Prevalence of Myopia in Children in Spain: An Updated Study in 2020

Background: In recent years, there was a significant increase in myopia incidence worldwide. However, it is still not clear how it affects Spanish children. Since 2016, this research team analyzed myopia prevalence and risk in 9668 children aged between 5 and 7 years. It was shown that the prevalence rates increased from 16.8% in 2016 to 20.4% in 2019. The objective of this study is to update the prevalence rate of myopia in Spain in 2020 and analyze the risk and prevention factors of myopia. Methods: The participants underwent an optometric examination, and a questionnaire on their lifestyle, family history, and geographical origin was carried out. Finally, data were analyzed using the SPSS version 27 program. Results: 1601 children from various Autonomous Communities of Spain were examined. In 2020 the myopia rates did not increase compared to 2019 (p < 0.05), although the number of hyperopes decreased and the number of emmetropes increased. Regarding age, the prevalence of myopia increased progressively over the years (p < 0.001). There was no association between gender and myopia (p > 0.05). There was a link between the time spent in near vision and family history with the prevalence of myopia (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence of myopia in Spain in children between 5 and 7 years old increased significantly between 2016 and 2020.

Public Funding of Research into Ethnological Activities in Andalusia (Spain): Boosting the Academic Career of Researchers

The advent of democracy in Spain and the establishment of the different autonomous communities marked the beginning of a process to transfer political, economic and other competences over Culture and Cultural Heritage. Following its creation in 1984, the Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Autonomous Government incorporated a Directorate-General for Cultural Assets into its organisational structure and embarked on an ambitious programme of actions to support Andalusian historical heritage, including creation of a management structure, enactment of a specific heritage law and budget allocations for protection tasks. From the outset, a type of heritage little known until then emerged: ethnological heritage. Dynamic actions were also promoted to fund research into this area, including grants for ethnological activities, financing for publications and funding for ethnological symposiums. This paper analyses the different ethnological activities carried out and their funding, and assesses the extent to which this investment favoured the professional development of teaching staff in the field of Social Anthropology in Andalusia, specifying the marginal effects and differentiating them according to gender and university size using binary choice models (Logit).

Parental Mediation and Use of Mobile Devices-Smartphones and Tablets- in Spanish Families

Mobile devices are changing society in different areas, including the family. This study analyses different types of parental mediation implemented in Spanish households in relation to Smartphones and Tablets. The participants in this study were 1082 parents from all the Spanish Autonomous Communities. The methodology used is quantitative (descriptive and inferential). The results show that the type of mediation most used by Spanish families is active mediation, followed by technical control, restrictive mediation and co-viewing. The application of one or another modality of mediation is conditioned by variables such as gender and age of the parents, number of children and educational stage of schooling or educational level of the mothers, among others. In conclusion, the research provides significant data on parental mediation for mobile devices in Spain.