Supporting and Protecting Whistleblowers (IT0040)

Short description Defining practices and procedures to collect the reports of public employees about cases of misconduct while ensuring the protection and confidentiality of whistleblowers in compliance with art. 54bis of Legislative Decree 165/2001. General objective Ensure the effectiveness of institutional guidance and support policies for those who take action to safeguard the public interest during their work inside a public organization (whistleblower). Current situation Law 190/2012 introduced whistleblowing in Italy, that is to say the rules governing the protection of individuals who report wrongdoings, but only in public administration. By virtue of legislative decree 90/2014, the National Anticorruption Authority (ANAC) is the institution which receives the disclosures. With decision 6/2015, the Authority issued the “Guidelines for the protection of public employees reporting wrongdoings (whistleblowers)” which contain indications, among other things, about the procedure for the effective management of reports with a clear indication of roles and stages, and about forms of protection for individuals other than public employees. ANAC carried out a monitoring activity on the state of the art of whistleblowing in Italy to learn more about its state of implementation and identify the features of Italian whistleblowers, the type of wrongdoings reported and the consequences of disclosures. At present, the weakness of this institution, as envisaged in Italian legislation, is the disadvantaged situation of whistleblowers. What is lacking is “follow-up” tools (private or public) to help whistleblowers understand whether the wrongdoing falls within the scope of legislation, how to make the disclosure and the protection tools against retaliation. Expected results Promote good whistleblowing policies in public administrations. Use open source technologies to develop ANAC’s system to manage reports on cases of misconduct. Use open source technologies available for reuse to develop a system to manage reports on cases of misconduct inside each administration. Develop support and guidance actions for those who take action to safeguard the public interest during their work inside a public organization/state-owned company (whistleblowers). Establish cooperation agreements with civic associations that play the role of “civic watchdogs” and ensure a broad social control and the detection of unclear cases with the purpose of encouraging targeted investigations. Disseminate the culture of whistleblowing through awareness-raising actions in cooperation with civil society, to create a favorable environment for whistleblowing.

For commitment details, see IRM Year 1 report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/italy-mid-term-report-2016-2018-year-1/

For commitment details, download the IRM report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/italy-end-of-term-report-2016-2018/