Source: rekonstrukcestatu.cz
Anticorruption NGOs Rekonstrukce státu, Frank Bold and Oživení, and Transparency International ČR have published comments on a new law on whistleblowing warning that it will provide insufficient protection.
There is currently no comprehensive legal protection of whistleblowing in the Czech Republic. A good law can significantly strengthen the protection of the public interest and prevent wasteful behaviour and other harms.
It was found that whilst the current proposal of the Ministry of Justice meets various requirements for a functional system of whistleblower protection (e.g. by adopting a broad definition of a whistleblower and encouraging the importance of internal reporting), it does not fulfil the full potential of such a law.
Experts see the main problem with the nature of the external reporting authority (the “Agency”) that whistleblowers will turn to. It also has been proposed to simplify the distinction between types of reports, strengthen confidentiality measures and explicitly facilitate anonymous reporting.
It was also felt that proposal does not effectively transpose various provisions of the EU Directive 2019/1937 on whistleblower protection.