Corporate Intelligence Agency launches digital whistleblowing reporting platform

Corporate Intelligence Agency, a company that deals with the identification and documentation of fraud in companies but also offers services to secure IT infrastructures, has launched in partnership with the law firm Noerr the digital platform Wibso, which responds to the need arising from the entry into force of the whistleblower law.

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Author: Atena Enea 07.04.2023

Companies need such a platform in the context of the entry into force of Law No. 261 / 2022, according to Gabriel Zgunea, CEO of Corporate Intelligence Agency. "Wibso is a digital whistleblower reporting platform developed to help private sector companies comply with Law 361 / 2022 on the protection of whistleblowers in the public interest. Under this law, all companies with at least 50 employees are required to identify and implement internal reporting channels that allow employees and business partners to internally report information on potential violations of the law to which they have access through their professional activities." This year the creation of this internal reporting channel is mandatory for companies with more than 250 employees, and next year it will become mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees, Zgunea explained.

On October 23, 2019 Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law was adopted and published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) L, series 305 of November 26, 2019. 

As a Member State of the European Union, Romania was obliged to transpose by December 17, 2021. 

On December 19, 2022, the Romanian Parliament enacted Law 361/2022 on the protection of whistleblowers in the public interest. It constitutes the general framework for the protection of persons who report violations of the law, which have occurred or are likely to occur, both within public authorities and institutions, other legal persons under public law and legal persons under private law. 

Both Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and Law 361/2022 set December 17, 2023 as the deadline by which private sector legal entities with between 50 and 249 employees are required to adopt the regulatory framework on the establishment of internal reporting channels. 

Instead, companies with more than 250 employees are required to identify and implement internal reporting channels once the law comes into force, i.e. from December 22, 2022.