With the forthcoming implementation of the new European directive for the protection of whistleblowers ( DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/1937 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL ) companies must implement a complaints channel.
The complaints channel will be one of the essential tools of the compliance officer. While large companies will have a compliance officer on staff, smaller companies will surely opt for an option offered by the board, outsourcing the function to a third party that offers the compliance officer service as a service. That is, you should only act if there is a complaint that requires it.
This new service, an outsourced compliance officer, will surely be offered by companies specialized in Compliance, whether it be one of the large auditors or a leading legal firm, such as small boutiques of specialists in regulatory compliance.
An important point is to manage the providers very well so as not to generate unnecessary dependencies. Many law firms will offer a comprehensive service including the portal. Our recommendation for companies is that they look for solutions that do not depend solely on one provider. In other words, if the firm offers this comprehensive service, it does so on a platform that is not owned by the firm, or that at least there are more firms that can operate on it.
This strategy facilitates possible supplier changes without generating such dependency that just thinking about it prevents us from considering the change. The captivity of a supplier is aligned with the elimination of competition and the difficulty of being able to negotiate market prices.
At ithikios we have developed a platform that allows Compliance experts to offer and manage a complaint channel to their clients. The platform is not exclusive to an office and therefore does not generate the dependency described above. ithikios cares about technology and ensuring the best service so that both specialists and companies do not want to leave ithikios, the compliance specialist cares about offering an excellent service on the platform to avoid being replaced by a competitor.
