The importance of anonymization in the new service Bústia Etica

Anonymization in the Bústia Etica service

Anonymization of reports is essential to guarantee confidentiality and protect whistleblowers from possible retaliation.

The Ethics Mailbox is the service provided by the AOC to entities, in collaboration with the Network of Transparent Governments. In this sense, the channel is provided to make, anonymously, complaints about, for example, inappropriate behavior, violations of the law or the rules of the organization.

To achieve it, recommendations will be carried out in terms of forms as well as maintaining efforts for technology to minimize risks.

Protection against the possibility of reprisals

Anonymity is important when using a whistleblowing channel or whistleblowing system because many people fear retaliation if they report inappropriate or illegal behavior.

This may be particularly relevant in organizations with a culture of bullying or where previous complaints have not been dealt with appropriately.

Also, in organizations with a low number of workers where, for this fact, they could suffer reprisals or the fear that they could materialize increases.

Impartiality in the treatment of complaints

Anonymization is also important to guarantee impartiality in the treatment of complaints. If whistleblowers are identifiable, they may feel pressured to recant or be treated differently from other whistleblowers.

Anonymization therefore helps ensure that all complaints are dealt with fairly and equitably.

In summary, using the Ethics Mailbox service can be a valuable tool to promote ethics and integrity in an organization.

However, it is important to recommend and ensure that reports are made anonymously to protect whistleblowers and ensure they are treated fairly.

Resources available

You have resources available, such as the new website of the service, specific support portal, documentation center which includes the FAQS and the plain of the service-specific testing entity.

How to request the registration of the service and other considerations in this regard

To request registration, you will find the procedure in the EACAT procedures, in the provider Consorci AOC, Service CAOC – Request for services, in the Procedure "Request for registration and modification of AOC services" .

In the same way as in other services, you will have to fill in the PDF document of Request for registration and modification of the services of the AOC where you will have to select the Ethical Mailbox service.

Service Considerations:

• The service is deployed in collaboration with the Transparent Governments Network.
• It is based on free software Globalleaks and that was driven by theAjuntament de Barcelona i XNet.
• Entities with integrity or anti-fraud plans that have already been drawn up and that need to incorporate the letterbox into the resources deployed to justify subsidies have priority in the activation of the Service's instances.

Others refferences

• Government Plan of the XIV legislature of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
• Explanatory website on the Network of Transparent Governments.
• Open Government Partnership (OGP) website about Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision.  
• OGP Action Plan 2021-23.