Whistleblowing

The whistleblowing unit is aimed both at university staff members and at other persons who observe corruption or other serious wrongdoings. The purpose of the unit is to facilitate the reporting of maladministration that the university would otherwise not be aware of, i.e., things that concern the university's vital interests or the life and health of individuals.

Persons who can be reported to the whistleblowing unit are persons in the university's management; persons who, according to the university's decision-making structure and delegation of authorities, who have the right to make decisions about or manage the university's funds, and other key persons in the organization.

The whistleblowing function is limited to serious wrongdoings related to accounting, internal bookkeeping, auditing, bribery, banking and financial crime, or other serious wrongdoings that affect the vital interests of the organization or an individual's life and health.

When should I report to the whistleblowing unit?

There are various channels in which cases of corruption and wrongdoings can be reported, within and outside of the university, and it is not always easy to decide to whom to turn.

The available channels are

• the nearest manager or the manager level above them
• the HR department or the university's legal advisors
• media
• the whistleblowing unit

Often, the best solution is to contact your nearest manager, or the manager level above them, if it feels inappropriate to turn to your nearest manager. In other cases, it may be appropriate to contact the HR department or the university's legal advisors. If you do not want to report to any unit within the university, you can instead use your freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution and apply to all university staff members, and turn directly to the media. The protection for persons who provide information is the strongest anonymity protection and includes a ban on the university to investigate who submitted certain information to the media.

Reports to the whistleblowing unit shall concern observations linked to persons in the university's management, persons who have the right to make decisions about, or manage the university's funds, or other key persons in the organization. The purpose of the whistleblowing unit is to handle the report themselves, or to ensure that it is passed on to the right person or unit at the university.

Reports

Reports to the whistleblowing unit can be made openly or anonymously by employees or by someone outside the university organization. Registration is done either via the form below or by calling, sending a letter or e-mail to the whistleblowing unit. You will find the contact information for the whistleblowing unit below. Reported forms are sent directly to the whistleblowing unit.

Your report needs to contain enough information to make it possible to determine whether the case should be handled by the whistleblowing unit or handed over to other managers or organizational units. It is important that the whistleblowing unit is able to contact you, because during the investigation, it is very likely that additional information will be needed. For that reason, regardless of the way in which the initial contact is made, we recommended that you include an e-mail address. If you want to remain anonymous, you can create a temporary e-mail address that does not reveal your identity.

The notification should include
• A clear description as possible of what the observations regarding corruption or wrongdoing consist of
• State who / what the observation is about
• Any supporting documentation regarding the observation can be attached to the report
• We recommend that you include your contact information
 
An application to the whistleblowing unit must be made in good faith and must never be done in order to discredit anyone, or for one´s own benefit. Anyone who intentionally submits inaccurate information may be guilty of a criminal act themselves.

Read about the investigation
Read about personal data and anonymity
More information about corruption and other irregularities