Source: transparency.dk
Anti-corruption NGO Transparency International (TI) Denmark have published a new Report –
“Whistleblowing in the Wind” – looking at the first tranche of reports mandated by the new law.
The Whistleblower Protection Act – new legislation to transpose the EU Directive on Whistleblowing – entered into force in Denmark on 17 December 2021. Companies covered by the Act on Public Administration must publish an annual report on the whistleblower activity.
TI Denmark collected annual reports from November 2022 – April 2023 for a comprehensive, cross-cutting analysis, which – as the title of the report suggests – indicates that the annual reports have a distinct lack of detail, and raise more questions than data can answer.
Conclusions of the report include that:
- the number of whistleblower reports is much lower than expected;
- that a large number of reports are rejected due to not being covered by the whistleblower scheme, and therefore companies should invest in education and raising awareness activities
- the reports only contain data for quantitative rather than qualitative analysis and therefore reporting practices need to be improved
Calling for an improvement in annual reporting in coming years – TI Denmark published a three-part guide to inspire what more effective annual reports could include.