Whistleblowing – an opportunity for everyone to promote the lawful, fair, open and transparent functioning of the institution through the right to express one’s opinion freely.
The Whistleblower Law [MML1] helps the citizens of Latvia to prevent violations and harm to public interests, while protecting whistleblowers from adverse consequences. From February 4, 2022, a new Whistleblowing Law is in force in Latvia, which takes over the EU Whistleblower Directive[MML2] , improving the current approach.
Whistleblower - a natural person who provides information on a possible violation which may harm the public interests if the person considers this information to be true and it has been obtained while fulfilling the work duties or establishing legal relations related to the fulfilment of work duties or while being in traineeship, and who might be subjected to adverse effects due to the provision of such information.
This means that any employee of an institution may be informed of any alleged violation of public interests in the operation of that institution in order to prevent it in time `before the reputation of the institution is compromised, it has incurred losses or the competent national authorities are involved. It is the possibility for employees to see potential infringements and, thanks to their professional knowledge and experience, to evaluate their hazards.
By means of an internal whistleblowing system, the report is closest to the “cause of the problem” and the concerns expressed can be evaluated promptly, as well as it is possible to prevent a possible violation or identify deficiencies of a systematic nature
After receiving the whistleblower’s report, the whistleblower’s personal data shall be pseudonimised.
The whistleblower’s personal data, the whistleblower’s report and the written or material evidence attached thereto, as well as the whistleblowing materials shall have the status of restricted access information.
Every person (institution) who has received or performs any activity with a whistleblower’s report shall have an obligation to ensure adequate protection of the whistleblower’s personal data. The whistleblower’s personal data may be transferred only to persons (institutions) who need it for the examination of the whistleblower’s report or for the examination of an infringement case on the basis thereof or for the protection of the whistleblower or his or her relatives. For more information about the whistleblower’s protection, please visit the website trauksmescelejs.lv, section on protection.
Contact persons of the institution may be contacted for advice on the possibility to blow the whistle or regarding the course of the examination of their report.
Contact person for whistleblowing: trauksme@neplp.lv
For more information about whistleblowing, please visit: www.trauksmescelejs.lv.