Initially organized at the request of the Réunion Management Center, this trip opened the way to a series of discussions around the right to whistleblowing with numerous public officials from Réunion, judicial and administrative magistrates, lawyers, as well as a delegation of companies from the department brought together by MEDEF.
The head of the institution's regional center, Didier Lefèvre, accompanied these meetings as well as the time spent with the six delegates present in the region.
Develop a whistleblowing culture with public sector agents and managers
Two meetings were organized with public officials from Réunion. The first in Sainte Clotilde, at the University of Reunion, the second in Saint-Leu, in the premises of the National Center of the Territorial Civil Service.
During these two awareness-raising mornings, the discussions – particularly rich – focused mainly on the specific issues of whistleblowing in the public service through two complementary angles:
- What are the rights of public officials who are whistleblowers and what protections could they benefit from if they were to issue an alert?
- How to implement effective procedures for collecting and processing reports within entities?
In 2023, a third of requests for protection addressed to the Defender of Rights in respect of whistleblowers came from public officials.
A meeting with the secretary general of the prefecture and the sub-prefect for social cohesion and youth allowed us to recall the intervention methods of the Defender of Rights for the protection of whistleblowers in the public service, and more largely in the four other areas of competence of the institution.
Find synergies with law and justice actors
During two meetings with administrative and judicial magistrates, Cécile Barrois de Sarigny and Laure Maisonneuve raised the voice of the institution on the legal issues of protecting authors of disclosure.
An initial discussion was organized at the Saint-Denis Court of Appeal with the magistrates of the judiciary, the industrial tribunal advisors and the magistrates of the regional chamber of accounts. A second was organized with the magistrates and collaborators of the administrative court of Saint-Denis de La Réunion.
The legislation relating to whistleblowers is relatively recent and gives rise to new disputes. Discussions with the courts made it possible to review the key concepts of whistleblowing law, developments in case law, and the crucial role of the judge in the implementation of protective provisions, particularly in terms of adjustment of the burden. of proof or granting of provisions for court costs.
A meeting with around ten lawyers completed this “tour of the island of legal professionals”.
Raise awareness in the business world of the issues of alerting to initiate a virtuous circle
At the invitation of the MEDEF of Réunion, the delegation of the Defender of Rights spoke with some of the main companies on the island.
The challenge for companies is to go beyond the negative approach to whistleblowing, wrongly perceived as a threat to business secrets or reputation, to understand it as a virtuous process in the professional environment.
The establishment of internal reporting systems constitutes an opportunity to restore trust within the company. The Defender of Rights, who notes that alerts exist in all professional environments, encourages companies to adopt accessible and effective alert processing procedures. The Reunionese interlocutors were receptive to this message.
Remind everyone that the whistleblower acts in the public interest and must be protected
Throughout this trip and in particular during an interview given to the Quotidien de la Réunion and during an appearance on the Réunion television news la 1erathe delegation recalled that many people are likely to be whistleblowers and that by disclosing serious attacks on the general interest, whistleblowers are among the pillars of our democratic structure.
