1. Whistleblowing: An Alternative to Silence Zuzana Dančíková, Bratislava, 13.3.2014

2. My Wife Was Against It, But I Decided To Speak Up Ján Mičovský, Senior PR Officer, Directorate General of Forests of the Slovak Republic Sent open letter to 1500 coworkers, pointing to suspicious company practices, that „everyone knew about“ (unprofitable property deals, contracts) Planned government „loan“ of more than €60 million suspended, Director General & Minister lost jobs 2 colleagues fired, 1 transferred, Mr. Mičovský resigned in protest

3. What is Whistleblowing? The disclosure of information about a perceived wrongdoing in an organization, or the risk thereof, to individuals or entities believed to be able to effect action.

4. Who is a Whistleblower? Imagine. You are an official at a Ministry, working with EU structural funds. You find out that your superiors influence the allocation of funds based on a extortion of bribes from the recipients and you have the evidence to prove this. What do you do? 1.Carry on 2.Quit your job 3.Blow the whistl e

5. Slovaks (Not) Blowing the Whistle Source: Eurobarometer 397, 2014

6. Slovaks (Not) Blowing the Whistle

7. (Not) Protecting Slovak Whistleblowers Advanced protectionPartial protectionNone or very limited protection Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia, UK Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain Source: Whistleblowing in Europe, TI-S

8. (Not) Protecting Slovak Whistleblowers 1.No stand-alone law, fragmented legislation, no definition 2.No offical information or guidance 3.Little & delayed protection, compensation, no punishment for retributions 4.No set rules for internal investigation 5.No designated whistleblower complaints authority 6.No reward & liability for not filing criminal charges

9. Let’s Protect Our Whistleblowers! 1.Single act to protect whistleblowers: broad definition of whistleblowing & whistleblowers 2.Rules for independent internal investigation 3.Rewarding whistleblowers 4.Revision of liability for reporting criminal act 5.Protection, compensation & punishment for retribution 6.Whistleblower complaints authority 7.Awareness raising & guidance for whistleblowers

10. Alternative: Civil Society

11. Zuzana Dancikova, dancikova@transparency.sk Q & A