Compliance - Digital tools and personal support

Since it became mandatory for employers to have an internal whistleblower channel, the employers using Lantero’s whistleblower channel have received over 2,500 reports in total. Municipal operations have three times as many reports compared to private operations. The introduction of the whistleblower law has not been without challenges, but we can see that many employers have greatly benefited from their whistleblower processes. ### Thank you to all brave and wise individuals June 23 is The World Whistleblower Day. With all the thousands of cases that have come in, we at Lantero want to take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank all the brave individuals who have taken the time and energy to report suspected misconduct. We also want to thank all the wise employers who take whistleblowing seriously and understand the benefits of a well-functioning whistleblower process. ### Significant differences Lantero has customers from both public and private sectors. We can note that public operations (largely municipalities) receive three times more reports compared to private operations. The reasons for this can be several: - Municipalities operate in many different areas - Municipalities are typically relatively large employers - Municipalities are major purchasers of both goods and services - Several municipalities are exposed to organized crime But we also believe it may be due to many municipalities being very ambitious with their whistleblower channel. They have worked actively to make the channel known and encouraged its use when needed. Therefore, receiving many reports does not necessarily have to be a negative thing. It can be a sign that the employer is open to improving the operation. ### The new whistleblower law is not without challenges Compared to the previous whistleblower law, the new one is more comprehensive. This does not necessarily mean it is clearer. For example, the assessment of whether an incoming report falls under the whistleblower law or not should be based on several factors that are open to interpretation. What does it mean that a case has “public interest” to be investigated? If it cannot be conclusively determined that the whistleblower received the information in a “work-related context,” should it not be classified as a whistleblower case? If a case has public interest, but the whistleblower is not covered by the whistleblower law’s protection, what is the employer’s responsibility then? We believe that the key to answering these questions lies in the original purpose of the whistleblower law: To protect informants to encourage people to dare to report suspected irregularities. The law has not yet been extensively tested. This means there are still ambiguities. Another challenge is the requirement for independence in the handling of incoming cases. A requirement that we think is entirely reasonable and central to whistleblower legislation. However, we often see that employers struggle to meet this requirement. Particularly for smaller employers, it is difficult to solve this with internal resources. It is therefore crucial to have well-formulated, anchored, and communicated routines from the start on how this should be handled. If a conflict of interest arises in the handling of a case, it should be simple, obvious, and well-anchored to bring in an external resource. On an overall level, we can unfortunately state that our experience is that internal whistleblower channels have an important function to fulfill. A function that, in the short time since the new law became mandatory, has proven useful and valuable for many employers. Good luck to all brave individuals and wise employers! The World Whistleblower Day is for you.

In connection with the requirement for a whistleblowing channel for smaller companies in Sweden that came into effect at the end of 2023, we at Lantero experienced an intense period. We have welcomed many new companies and organizations as clients. Some of you are in close contact with us regarding cases or other advisory services, while we have much more sparse interaction with others. We are always available if you need assistance. We are now working on new services, primarily related to regulations, reporting, and case management processes. A particular focus is the fight against welfare crime and fraud, an area undergoing significant development, especially in the public sector. For many municipalities and authorities, welfare crime is a special focus as costs have recently increased rapidly, and the area has been identified as possibly the primary source of funding for organized crime. We have long had close cooperation with many municipalities in related areas and are collaborating particularly closely in this project with a handful of municipalities that are at the forefront of the fight against welfare crime. Together, we are developing effective tools for the overall effort and, from a national perspective, for sharing best practices in this area. If you are interested in participating in the development work in future phases, please feel free to contact us. The whistleblowing service is also being further developed based on our customer interactions. We are adding functionality and making the tool easier to use. For instance, we have established new possibilities to easily revert a case in the case management process. As part of Lantero's maintenance work, we will be performing a server migration on June 12th between 13:00 and 16:00 CET. During this time, the system will be unavailable for login, and whistleblowers will not be able to submit a report via the web form. We have chosen to carry out the upgrade during the time of day when new whistleblower cases are normally not reported in the system. We thank you in advance for your patience!

Lantero will perform a server migration on June 12th between 13:00 and 16:00. This will result in a service interruption during which the service will not be available. We have chosen to schedule the interruption during the day because we prioritize availability for whistleblowers and know from experience that more cases are reported outside of office hours. We constantly strive to maintain the best, safest, and most stable service possible and appreciate your patience with this temporary service disruption. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or feedback!