A few months ago I published a note reflecting on the new European regulation on whistleblower protection, highlighting its novelty, relevance and its connection to mechanisms such as effective collaboration in our environments: see – Part 1 –

On this occasion, I would like to highlight the new development in the Spanish system, in which sanctions of up to one million Euros are foreseen for administrations that retaliate against corruption whistleblowers, Project on Corruption in Spain ; will be something interesting, especially anticipating what could be the application of this type of regulations in our countries -especially due to the tendency to emulate certain European legislations within our legal systems-; at first instance some doubts arise: what happens when the improper protection of whistleblowers and collaborators occurs within the public sector itself, who will protect the whistleblowers and who pays the bill?

On another occasion I made a publication on the public sector. where he mentions a former Minister of Finance of a Latin American country where he mentions that he had observed approvals of public contracts in the context of which there had been improper acts by members of other branches of government, obviously the former Minister did not mention that he did not report the potential illicit act – would there be a breach of duty to report at the time on his part? One of the theses that could be formulated is that the official would not feel protected from denouncing an act, but at the same time he would be infringing his responsibility by omitting a duty to denounce -which by the way he fulfilled morally by mentioning it in the book but not legally at the moment of witnessing the alleged act.

The corollary is that the protection of whistleblowers and effective collaborators is not adequate to favor the protection of the legal good of the integrity of the public administration.

If we take the European model that companies pay the bill, we are left with the reflection: how a whistleblower protection regulation could be built in Latin America to protect an official who reports an act of corruption in the public sector, a provocative question especially that neither the European legislations have advanced enough to have a referential framework, however a light can be the individualized pecuniary sanction and the public veto to participate in public management for those public servants who have omitted their duty to protect whistleblowers or effective collaborators, it will be a matter to build for our generation.