ESTABLISHMENT OF A CONTACT POINT FOR REPORTING COMPLIANCE VIOLATIONS

With the Whistleblower Protection Act of 12 May 2023, the legislator has implemented an EU directive that obliges employers to set up an internal office to which violations of laws and regulations can also be reported anonymously. This applies to all areas of work, for example occupational safety, hygiene, accounting, tax or official orders or requirements. The aim is to enable secure and low-threshold reporting, even of suspected cases, so that violations can be rectified quickly and unbureaucratically without running the risk of having to contact an external authority in the event of an uncertain legal or evidentiary situation and thus possibly committing breaches of confidentiality or data protection.

As a university, we have therefore set up both an e-mail address, , that forwards the message to the reporting centre without storing it on our servers and a website that can be used by employees, customers or suppliers to make an anonymous report.

As "Compliance Officer", Norbert Zens, member of the Board of Trustees, Treasurer of the EUD and former auditor, will also receive and process reports by telephone.

Online reporting via the Hintcatcher Whistleblower System 

Have you noticed a violation of the law or a breach of regulations? Via the reporting platform of the Hintcatcher Whistleblower System, we offer you the opportunity to anonymously submit information about violations to our responsible person at the joint reporting centre of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

How do I create a notification via the Hintcatcher Notification System?

Submitting an anonymous report via the Hintcatcher Whistleblower System is simple and can be done in just a few steps:

1. Access the reporting centre with your browser.

2. Select the option to submit a new report.

3. Enter the information in your report, including the description and time of the incident.

Note: The more precisely you describe the incident, the faster and better those responsible can respond to the incident. However, please ensure that you do not provide any personal information if you wish to remain anonymous.

4. You can add file attachments to your report if required.

5. Send the report.

6. You will now be shown a case ID and a case-related password.

Please keep a record of this information or print it out. Only with this data will you be able to access the case and responses from responsible persons in the future.

Your report has now been successfully submitted. Please note that you will not be notified automatically in the event of queries or responses from those responsible in order to protect your anonymity. You should therefore access your case at regular intervals to retrieve answers and possible queries.

What are the next steps?

You can find out about the current status of your case at any time. To do this, access your company's reporting centre and select the option to view the mailbox for a report that has already been submitted. To do this, log in with the access data (case ID and case-related password - see point 6 of the instructions above) that you received after submitting your report.

1. The receipt of your case will be checked and confirmed. Note: You can expect a confirmation of receipt no later than 7 days after submitting your report.

2. A person responsible will check your report and ask you questions if necessary. Queries will be sent to you via the case mailbox and can be answered by you there.

3. The person responsible will process your case and define measures to alleviate the effects of the incident.

4. The persons responsible will provide you with the final feedback via the postbox and thus give you feedback on the measures taken.
Note: You can expect final feedback no later than 3 months after confirmed receipt of your report.

The case is then closed. Closed cases are deleted from the system after six months for data protection reasons. Please therefore check the processing status of your case regularly via the postbox.