Directive (EU) 2019/1937 - Legislative Decree N. 24/2023

Legislative Decree n. 24/2023 (the ‘Decree‘) has transposed into Italian law Directive (EU) 2019/1937 ‘on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law‘ (the ‘Directive‘). The aim of the Directive is to protect anyone who reports work-related misconduct.

The reporting of information falls within the scope of the new legislation if it relates to violations that are prejudicial to the public interest or the integrity of public or private institutions.

Under the Directive/Decree whistleblowers will be protected for reporting breaches within specific areas (e.g.: public procurement; financial services, products and markets; product safety and compliance; transport safety; protection of the environment; food safety, animal health and welfare; public health; consumer protection; protection of privacy and personal data, security of network and information systems, etc).

As a strong form of protection, the whistleblowers’ identity will be kept confidential. Whistleblowers are also protected against any form of retaliation provided that at the time of reporting they had reasonable grounds to believe that the reported information was true.

The whistleblowers must submit their concern through the designated reporting channel:

-Internal reporting channels: whistleblowers are encouraged to use this channel to report breaches. The information provided through this channel must be addressed to the the Anticorruption Officer - in Italian: Responsabile della Prevenzione della Corruzione e della Trasparenza – RPCT (rpct.ice@ice.it) at ICE-Agenzia and they will exclusively – confidentially - be managed by the RPCT. ICE-Agenzia has implemented an internal online reporting channel available below - WhistleblowingPA platform with a detailed sequence of procedural steps and confidentiality and data protection provisions.

- External reporting channels: in specific cases where whistleblowers do not consider internal reporting channels to be the best option for reporting misconduct, a whistleblower may report externally to the Italian Anti-corruption Authority (ANAC).

- Public reporting: in terms of public disclosures, which means making information available in the public domain, whistleblowers qualify for protection in specific cases as prescribed by law.

The Italian Trade Agency - ICE has joined the WhistleblowingPA project of Transparency International Italia and the Hermes Center for Transparency and Human and Digital Rights, adopting their IT platform in order to comply with regulatory obligations and to provide a safe reporting tool.

The reporting procedure is as follows:

• a report is made by filling in a questionnaire.
• a report is received and processed by the person responsible for Corruption Prevention and Transparency (RPCT) in full confidentiality;
• on sending a report, the reporting person receives a 16-digit numeric code which must be kept for later access to the report, to verify the response of the RPCT and to respond to requests for clarification or further information;
• a report can be made from any digital device (PC, tablet, smartphone) both from within the organization and externally.
• the protection of the reporting person's identity is guaranteed in all circumstances.

Click here for the translation of the questions related to the report

Click on the banner below if you wish to report a case of wrongdoing