Whistleblower protection

The Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as "the Law") establishes a mechanism for the protection of persons who have provided information on an irregularity in an institution with which they are or have been bound by service, employment or contractual relations. The Law also establishes the rights and obligations of persons who report infringements in institutions, the grounds and forms of their legal protection, as well as measures to protect, encourage and assist such persons, with a view to providing adequate opportunities for reporting infringements of the law which threaten or violate the public interest, and to ensuring the prevention and detection of such infringements.

The person reporting the infringement

A natural person who provides information about an infringement to the Certification Center of Building Products of which he/she has become aware by virtue of his/her service, employment or contractual relationship (consultancy, contracting, subcontracting, internship, apprenticeship, volunteering, etc.).A person who is self-employed, a shareholder or a person belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory body of an undertaking (including non-executive members, volunteers and paid or unpaid trainees), or any natural person working under the supervision and direction of contractors, sub-contractors, and/or suppliers, who has provided information about the infringement.

Whistleblowers

A person who provides information on an infringement and who is recognised as a whistleblower by the competent authority (Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Lithuania).

Cases of whistleblowing

In accordance with the Law, information on infringements shall be provided for:

danger to public safety or health, life or health of a person;
danger to the environment;
obstruction of or unlawful influence on investigations by law enforcement authorities or the administration of justice by the courts;
the financing of unlawful activities;
illegal or non-transparent use of public funds or property;
illegally acquired assets;
concealment of the consequences of an infringement or obstruction of the ascertainment of the extent of the consequences;
offences referred to in the list approved by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, drawn up in the light of the scope of application of the European Union legal acts referred to in Directive (EU) 2019/1937;
damage to the financial interests of the European Union, as referred to in Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and further specified in the relevant European Union instruments;
infringements relating to the internal market as referred to in Article 26(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, including infringements of the competition and State aid rules of the European Union, as well as infringements relating to the internal market as a result of acts in contravention of the corporation tax rules or agreements aimed at obtaining a tax advantage which undermines the object or purpose of the applicable corporation tax law;
other infringements.

Information on infringements shall be provided to protect the public interest. The provision of information for the purpose of protecting purely private interests shall not be considered as notification.

Confidentiality

A person who submits information about an infringement under the Act shall be subject to confidentiality, irrespective of whether the person is recognised as a whistleblower. Confidentiality shall also apply to a natural person who assists the person reporting the infringement and whose assistance should be confidential.

The confidentiality requirement does not apply where:

it is requested in writing by the person submitting or submitting the information on the infringement or by the whistleblower;
the person submitting the information relating to the infringement provides knowingly false information.

In the Ministry of the Environment, the confidentiality of a person who submits a notification of infringement under the Law shall be ensured by the Corruption Prevention and Internal Investigation Division of the Ministry of the Environment.

Form and content of the report

A person may submit a report by:

by filling in the form of the infringement notification specified in the Annex to the Description of the Procedure for the Implementation of the Internal Information Channels for the Provision of Information on Violations and Ensuring their Functioning, approved by the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No. 1133 "On the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers in the Republic of Lithuania" of 14 November 2018.
A free-form notification (indicating that the notification is made in accordance with the Law) which must contain the following information:
- name, surname, personal identification number, place of work, other contact details of the whistleblower;
- the information known: who, when, in what manner and by what means has committed, is committing or is about to commit the infringement; the date and circumstances of the discovery of the infringement; whether the person has already reported the infringement; if so, to whom and whether a reply has been received; and any other documents, data or information available to the person that reveals the elements of the possible infringement.

Submission of the notification

A person reporting a violation to the Certification Center of Building Products may submit the information through the internal reporting channel in one of the following ways:

Directly to the Corruption Prevention and Internal Investigations Division of the Ministry of the Environment (by coming to this division).
By sending the information to the email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We recommend submitting a whistleblower report by filling in the following form (PDF), (DOCX).
A person may also submit the notification directly to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Lithuania, which is considered a competent authority under the Law, or submit the notification publicly.

Prohibition of adverse impact

It is prohibited to take any adverse action against the person who has provided the information or the whistleblower as a result of the provision of such information from the date of the provision of such information: dismissal from employment or service, demotion or reassignment, intimidation, harassment, discrimination, threats of reprisals, threats of reprisals, restrictions on career prospects, reductions in salary, changes in working hours, doubts about competence, transmission of negative information about him or her to third parties, withdrawal of the right to work with information which is a State or official secret, or any other adverse action.

It shall also be prohibited to adversely affect family members, relatives, colleagues of the person who has provided information on the infringement or of the whistleblower who are employed by the institution or by any other legal entity with subordinate links to the institution, where a family member, relative or colleague of the person who has provided the information on the infringement may suffer adverse consequences as a result of the provision of the information.

The whistleblower, the whistleblower and the persons referred to in Article 10(3) of this Law may apply to the court for redress in respect of the consequences of the adverse measures. A person who has a service relationship with an institution shall have the right, in accordance with the Law on Administrative Proceedings, to challenge an administrative decision or other act or omission taken in respect of him/her and having negative consequences.

The person who has provided information on the infringement or the whistleblower may also appeal to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Lithuania on the grounds of the negative consequences suffered.

Relevant legal acts (published in the Register of Legal Acts)

Additional information

A person shall not be subject to any contractual or tort liability, as well as liability for defamation, for slander, for providing information on a violation, if, when providing information on a violation in accordance with the procedure established by the Law, he/she reasonably believed that he/she was providing correct information.

A person shall only be liable for damages resulting from the provision of information about an infringement if it is proved that the person could not reasonably have believed that the information he or she provided was correct.

The provision of information which is known to be false, as well as information which constitutes a state or official secret, does not confer any guarantees on the person under the Act. A person who has provided information which is notoriously false or who has disclosed a State or official secret or a professional secret shall be liable in accordance with the procedure laid down in the legislation.