Documents
All Documents

Whistleblower Protection

The Law on Whistleblower Protection of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Law’) establishes a protection mechanism for whistleblowers who have provided information on a breach in an institution with which they are or have been associated through service, employment or contractual relations. The Law further establishes the rights and obligations of whistleblowers who report breaches in institutions, the grounds and measures of their legal protection, as well as measures to protect, encourage and assist such whistleblowers, with a view to facilitating the reporting of legal breaches that threaten or violate the public interest, and to ensuring the prevention and disclosure of such breaches.

A whistleblower is a person who provides information about a breach within the Vilnius City Municipality Public Health Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Bureau’), which came to their knowledge as a result of an employment or contractual relationship (consultancy, contract, subcontract, internship, apprenticeship, volunteer work, etc.) that they currently have or have had with the Bureau, or in the course of their recruitment or other pre-contractual relationship, or a person providing information about a breach who is self-employed, a shareholder, or a member of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the Bureau, if such bodies are convened, including non-executive members, volunteers and paid or unpaid interns, or any other individual working under the supervision and instruction of contractors, subcontractors and/or suppliers and recognised as a whistleblower by the competent authority – the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania.

A breach shall include a criminal offence, an administrative offence, a breach of professional duties, a corruption offence, a serious breach of compulsory professional ethics or the Bureau’s internal regulations relating to anti-corruption, an attempt to conceal a breach, or any other legal breach threatening or violating the public interest and any other breach of the law, which may be in the pipeline, currently underway or committed in the Bureau.

Breaches are reported to protect the public interest. Reporting information to protect private interests exclusively does not constitute whistleblowing.

Under the Law on Whistleblower Protection, information on breaches is reported in relation to the following:

  • endangering public safety or health, or the life or health of an individual;
  • posing a threat to the environment;
  • obstructing or unlawfully influencing law enforcement investigations or the administration of justice by the courts;
  • financing illegal activities;
  • using public funds or assets unlawfully or without transparency;
  • crime proceeds;
  • concealing the effects of the breach and obstructing the identification of the extent of those effects;
  • breaches referred to in the schedule approved by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, which was prepared with regard to the scope of application of the European Union legislative acts referred to in Directive (EU) 2019/1937;
  • damaging the financial interests of the European Union, as referred to in Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and further detailed in the relevant European Union instruments;
  • breaches concerning the internal market as referred to in Article 26(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, including breaches of European Union competition and State aid rules, as well as breaches relating to the internal market and resulting from conduct which breaches corporate tax rules, or agreements intended to achieve a tax advantage which undermines the object or purpose of applicable corporate tax law;
  • other breaches.

A whistleblower reporting a breach to the Bureau shall identify themselves and may report such information through the internal channel in one of the following ways:

Any decisions relating to the information submitted through the internal channel shall be taken by the qualified party of the Bureau (the Bureau Adviser) following its recording and examination.

We recommend that you report the breach by completing a Whistleblowing Disclosure Form.

You may submit a whistleblowing report in free form. If the whistleblower prefers to submit a free-form disclosure rather than complete the prescribed form, the whistleblower shall state in the disclosure that it is submitted in accordance with the Law on Whistleblower Protection.

When reporting a breach, please include the following where possible:

  • information supporting the facts (when, how and what kind of breach has been or is about to be committed, the possible motives of the person committing the breach, the date and circumstances of learning about the breach, etc.);
  • the name and job title of the Bureau employee being reported, if known to the whistleblower, and any other relevant information to assist in the identification of the Bureau employee who may have committed the breach;
  • the whistleblower’s name, personal identification number, workplace, home address (or email address) for correspondence and other contact details for communication;
  • whether the breach has already been reported; if so, to whom, and whether a reply has been received;
  • whether the whistleblower wishes to receive confirmation of safe receipt of the disclosure and the process and outcome of the investigation;
  • confirmation that the breach is disclosed in accordance with the Law on Whistleblower Protection.

A whistleblower may also submit their report on a breach directly to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania, which is considered to be the competent authority according to the Law (please see the FAQ section for further details), or they may disclose the breach publicly.

The Bureau shall examine such disclosures according to the IProcedures for Whistleblowing to the Vilnius City Municipality Public Health Bureau under the Law on Whistleblower Protection of the Republic of Lithuania, approved by Order No VĮ-68 of 12 September 2023 of the Bureau’s Director.

Any whistleblower shall be treated confidentially.

The Bureau shall ensure confidentiality with regard to the whistleblower or person disclosing the breach. If disclosure is made anonymously, the person waives access to whistleblower status and the possibility of receiving feedback on the outcome of the investigation.

Data identifying the person disclosing the breach, the whistleblower, or any person connected to the breach, may only be disclosed to the person or authority investigating the breach.

The confidentiality clause does not apply in the following cases:

  • the person disclosing the breach or the whistleblower makes a written request to that effect;
  • the person disclosing the breach provides knowingly false information.

Legal remedies against adverse effects and measures available to the person disclosing the breach as referred to in Article 11(3) and (5) of the Law:

  • where the person disclosing the breach through the institution’s internal whistleblowing channel is adversely affected, they may submit a report to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania, which shall consider whether the person should be recognised as a whistleblower;
  • the person disclosing the breach, the whistleblower and the persons referred to in Article 10(3) of the Law (family members, relatives, and colleagues of the whistleblower working in the institution or in any other subordinate legal entity of the institution in which a family member, relative, or colleague of the discloser is employed) may apply to the court for redress concerning the effects of retaliatory measures. Pursuant to the Law on Administrative Proceedings, any person bound by an official relationship with an institution shall have the right to challenge an administrative decision or any other act or omission which has been taken and which has had adverse effects on them.

The rights and guarantees of the person disclosing the breach and the exemption from liability for disclosure, as set out in Article 3(3) of the Law:

  • persons disclosing corruption offences may be subject to assistance, protection and incentive measures in accordance with the procedures established by the Law;
  • where the person discloses the breach in accordance with the procedure established by the Law, and includes information relating to commercial (industrial) secrets, professional secrets, bank secrets, corporate confidential information or information on the private life of a person, the disclosure of such information shall not constitute disclosure of a commercial (industrial) secret, a bank secret, confidential information or information on the private life of a person, save for the exception referred to in Article 4(10) of the Law concerning the public disclosure of a breach, as well as cases where the disclosure of information constituting a professional secret to the competent authority would contravene the laws regulating individual professional activities and the European Union law;
  • the person disclosing the breach shall not be subject to any contractual or tortious liability in respect of the disclosure, including liability for defamation, if the disclosure was made in accordance with the procedure established by the Law and the disclosing person had reasonable grounds for believing that they were disclosing truthful information;
  • the person disclosing the breach shall only be liable for damages resulting from the disclosure if it is proved that the person could not have had reasonable grounds for believing that the information they disclosed was correct;
  • if the person disclosing the breach has done so anonymously, the measures of protection, incentive and assistance provided for in Article 8 of the Law shall apply in cases where their identity has been revealed and it is necessary to protect them from adverse effects;
  • any deliberate disclosure of false information or of information constituting a State, official or professional secret shall not afford the disclosing person any guarantees under the Law. The person who has knowingly disclosed false information or who has disclosed a State, official or professional secret shall be liable in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation.

Please be advised that your disclosure of a suspected breach to the Bureau shall result in the processing of your personal data by the Bureau for the purpose of managing and assessing such disclosure. Please refer to this Privacy Notice for more information on the processing of your personal data, such as legal grounds, retention periods, data subject’s rights, etc.

IMPORTANT

The person disclosing the breach shall not be subject to any contractual or tortious liability in respect of the disclosure, including liability for defamation, if the disclosure was made in accordance with the procedure established by the Law and the disclosing person had reasonable grounds for believing that they were disclosing truthful information.

Any deliberate disclosure of false information or of information constituting a State or official secret shall not afford the disclosing person any guarantees under the Law. The person who has knowingly disclosed false information or who has disclosed a State or official secret shall be liable in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation.