![Colin Calleja BDO Malta Risk Advisory](/getmedia/0bbf9cef-c85c-4ffb-9c4d-7513e806f544/Our-People-Colin-280x280px.png?width=280&height=280&ext=.png)
Colin Calleja
The Whistleblower Protection Directive (EU Dir. 2019/1937) has been transposed into Maltese law under the “Protection of the Whistleblower Act (CAP527)” on 17 December 2021, meaning that all organisations registered in Malta and employing more than 50 workers are now obliged to comply with the law requirements.
The Protection of the Whistleblower Act establishes rules and procedures to protect ‘whistleblowers’, these being individuals who report information they acquired in a work-related context on breaches of EU law in key policy areas. Breaches falling within the scope of the Act, and consequently of the EU Whistleblower Directive, may concern:
The scope of the Act is to protect whistleblowers from harm or retaliation for reporting EU breaches. The Act covers a wide range of reporting persons working in the private and public sectors. Potential reporting persons include:
Protection extends also to individuals who, whilst not being ‘workers’ within the organisation, can play a key role in exposing breaches of Union law and may find themselves in a position of economic vulnerability of their work related activities. Such individuals include suppliers, distributors, freelancers, contractors, and subcontractors.
We start by helping clients understanding their whistleblower protection compliance obligations, before creating and executing a remediation plan that meets all the organisation’s requirements. While every plan is specifically customised to meet each of our client’s unique context, our main services are aligned to support the EU Whistleblower protection requirements as follows:
In the course of developing a tailored organizational framework, BDO Malta will hold discussions with the top management to ensure the internal mechanisms in place reflect the internal processes, values and set up.
Colin Calleja