On November 30, 2019, the amendment to the Act on public offering entered into force. It contained a provision imposing on issuers of financial instruments the obligation to ensure easy, unrestricted and stress-free reporting of violations of law, procedures, ethical principles (so-called whistleblowing) to the management board or supervisory board. From Saturday, listed companies must make such information channels available to all employees. It is about implementing EU regulation requiring public companies to "establish a special channel for reporting actual or potential irregularities".
According to Mirosław Kachniewski, president of the Association of Stock Exchange Issuers (SEG), SEG members have long been informed about the new requirement and they will have no problems with this.
“I have more concerns about the procedure for identifying transactions with related entities that require the consent of the supervisory board and publication. Such procedures should also be launched in companies from last Saturday, and their creation and implementation is much more complicated,” the president of SEG added.
Companies should design and implement a channel that signals irregularities, e.g. corruption behavior, theft, misappropriation, etc. so that applicants are not afraid of repression by perpetrators or other persons from the company, or even identification.
As of 2015, signaling channels had to be introduced by banks. The obligation will soon be extended to companies employing over 50 employees.
(Puls Biznesu)