We keep receiving inquiries as to whether the management can actually also hold the office of ombudsperson in the whistleblower channel. The Whistleblower Protection Act itself does not provide any concrete information on this: The employer can hand over this item internally, e.dem to the DPO or the compliance officer, but can also outsource it to external third parties such as a law firm as an ombudsperson.
The only important thing is that the ombudsperson can work “independently”. If the managing director himself wants to receive the information, it is quite conceivable that conflicts of interest could arise here. However, the solution is once again very simple: If the report is outsourced to a third party who then acts as a whistleblower (e.g. to an external ombudsman via an online tool), there is no conflict of interest with the ombudsman and he will only forward the really relevant reports to the company. This saves time and resources.
Of course, the contact person in the company for any follow-up or investigative measures can also be the management, because they have to be involved anyway as soon as a report gives rise to further investigations. Experience has shown that if the whistleblower channel is misused for other complaints, the management does not want to deal with it.
For further information, please contact:
Diane Frank, Partner
SCHMID FRANK, Augsburg
e: ed.knarf-dimhcs@knarf.enaid
t: +49 (0)1578 90 333 60
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