Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Corruption and European Directive No. 1937/2019
Whistleblowing channels enable the transmission of reports to the entities or companies concerned by the report.
Reports mainly concern allegations of violation of laws perpetrated by the entity or company or by their employees.
Regulations that rule the whistleblowing channels
Various regulations provide for the creation of whistleblowing channels by companies or entities: among them the Directive 1937/2019 on violations of laws with an impact on the EU finances, Law m. 231/2007 on violations of anti-money laundering regulations and Law 231/2001 on the administrative liability of entities for certain crimes committed by employees.
Each of the above-mentioned laws regulates whistleblowing channels, but each one rules them in a different way: they all provide for (i) the obligation of confidentiality of the body receiving the report, but each poses different guarantees and limits, (ii) the obligation of investigation, but with different timing and modalities, and (iii) specific and differentiated ways of reporting (to the Supervisory Body, to a third body or to a specific appointee).
What companies and entities must do to comply with regulations
In order to comply with the various laws, companies and entities, therefore, should create multiple and different whistleblowing channels.
It is important, therefore, for companies and entities to have whistleblowing channels that are agile, easy to use, and where it is possible – depending on the subject matter-indicate the correct recipient of the whistleblowing, with the safeguards provided for the specific channel.
Until now, many companies and entities have used a simple mail address as whistleblowing channel: in essence, the whistleblower must use his or her own email (thus using his or her own name) to make the whistleblowing report or must be able to set up his or her own ad hoc mailbox (without providing his or her own name) to send the whistleblowing report.
Now, however, new possibilities have opened up, thanks both to technological and software developments and to the increased experience carried out by professionals working in the compliance market.
The advantages of software that ensures the anonymity of whistleblowing reports
It is currently possible to use specific web-based software where it is sufficient for the whistleblower to write his whistleblowing report in the mask that appears to him on the Internet page, without the need to communicate the name. The cost of such software for the company receiving the whistleblowing reports is normally very low, while for the user there is no cost.
The ANAC (National Anticorruption Authority) has also chosen to allow whistleblowing reports through web-based software, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the system.
An alternative to web-based software is the company/entity acquisition of a whistleblowing software to be installed on its own systems, with all the difficulties that come with managing the software itself.
Finally, for more structured companies, it is possible to purchase the whistleblowing service from third-party companies. This, evidently, entails often significant costs that are justified only by the presence of a rather large, varied and often dispersed audience of potential whistleblowers in various countries.
Given the orientation of EU and of the national Parliament, within the next five years all companies will basically be required to provide to employees, suppliers, contractors, etc. with at least one whistleblowing channel and, therefore, it would be a good idea to start early and begin creating it into corporate compliance programs as of now.