Whistleblower scheme
DIIS' whistleblower scheme follows the Whistleblower Act, which applies to all public workplaces with more than 50 employees. The purpose of the scheme is to bring to light facts which would not otherwise have come to the attention of the institution.
To report:
The report must be made via DIIS' whistleblower scheme here, where the report is initially processed by Nordic Whistle, see guidance in Appendix 1 below.
Nordic Whistle handles:
- The initial communication with the person making a report – the whistleblower.
- Ensures that everything is legally complied with when reporting.
- Advice, sparring and guidance on how to handle the case.
Via the link, it is also possible to go to the report again, e.g. if:
- You want to see the status of your report to check if further processing has taken place.
- You would like to add further information.
- Nordic Whistle has requested further information from you.
What can be reported through the scheme?
The scheme covers the reporting of breaches of EU law that fall within the scope of the Whistleblower Directive and serious offences and other serious matters relating to DIIS.
This may be suspicion or knowledge of illegal, unethical, or irregular behavior, matters relating to bribery and corruption, misuse of funds, theft, fraud, embezzlement, fraud and financial crime. This may involve serious personal conflicts at work, e.g. on the basis of racial sex, colour, language, property, national and/or social origin, religious affiliation or cases of sexual/other serious harassment.
Who can submit information to the whistleblower scheme?
DIIS' whistleblower scheme can be used by the following persons:
- Current employees working for DIIS, including full-time and part-time employees, fixed-term employees, project employees and temporary workers.
- External employees on grants where DIIS administers the salary funds.
- Unpaid employees, e.g. master's students, interns and visiting researchers.
- Former employees.
- Persons who are not yet employed but make a report in relation to the recruitment process or other pre-contractual negotiations.
People who do not have or have not had a contractual cooperation with DIIS can report via the Danish Data Protection Agency's whistleblower scheme on whistleblower.dk.
Anonymity
Nordic Whistle and the employees of DIIS who process the reports (The Whistleblower Unit) are subject to a special duty of confidentiality regarding the information included in the report. This means that employees affiliated with the Whistleblower unit may not disclose information that could directly or indirectly identify the whistleblower's identity.
The whistleblower device does not log either the IP address or the machine ID on the computer from which the report is made, and Nordic Whistle's portal does not use cookies. If the computer from which the report is made is owned by DIIS or connected to DIIS' network, there is a risk that it will be logged in the browser's history and/or DIIS' log which IP address and/or which machine ID report was made from, via the logging that takes place in DIIS' own It systems. You can eliminate this risk by making the report from a computer that is not owned by DIIS or connected to DIIS' network.
The whistleblower scheme allows you to be anonymous when filing a report, as the scheme does not require you to declare your identity. As a reporter, you are therefore free to choose whether you want to make a report anonymously or with personal contact information.
If you choose to report anonymously, it is possible to choose whether you want to be available for a possible investigation by saving the code you receive in connection with the report. The code makes it possible to access and follow up on reports in DIIS' whistleblower portal, including communicating with Nordic Whistle. DIIS encourages that you as a reporter save the code, as it can be difficult for the whistleblower unit to conduct an investigation without further information from the reporter, see guidance in Appendix 1 below.
DIIS generally encourages a whistleblower not to submit information anonymously in order to comply with DIIS's ability to investigate the case and thus process the report adequately, but it is completely voluntary to choose anonymity.