Source: korupce.cz
The Ministry of Justice has submitted a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers to the Government on 30 September 2020. The Governmental Legislative Council and its individual working groups have 60 days to review.
The meeting of the governments established a working group on whistleblowing as well as the meeting of the Government Council for the Coordination of the Fight against Corruption are planned to discuss the Draft and the comments of the Governmental Legislative Council later on in November.
NGO Oลพivenรญ, has reflected on the inter-ministerial commentary procedure finding that there are positive aspects including:
- protection is provided to all whistleblowers without restrictive conditionality (i.e. procedural protection in court proceedings);
- It is explicitly stated that it is possible to report anonymously;
- confidentiality measures for whistleblowers, other concerned persons and for disclosures has been improved;
- clarification of the relationship of the new law with other relevant legislation (e.g. the Anti Money Laundering framework).
Problematic aspects of the proposal include:
- the competent authority to handle external reporting will retain authority under the Ministry of Justice;
- the explanatory memorandum to the draft law is not sufficiently clear that there will be no requirement for a whistleblower to be acting in good faith as per the EU Directives recitals.
The Draft Law introduces the possibility to utilise the option afforded under the EU whistleblowing Directive to exclude the protection of disclosure of information on a matter ofโโ national security.