Internal Reporting Office acc. to HinSchG

Our Internal Reporting Office

The protection and well-being of our employees, customers, suppliers, and subcontractors are very important to our company. At the same time, we are aware of our social responsibility. Therefore, it is crucial for us to always be in full compliance with the legal requirements placed on our company.

Potential issues are noticed more quickly when more people attentively monitor our work processes. However, it is important that we actually receive reports about corresponding problems. We would therefore like to offer a simple way to provide us with information about possible violations.

Who Can Make a Report?

For this purpose, the following individuals can contact us with a report via the link below:

• our employees,
• temporary workers assigned to us, and
• additionally, all other natural persons who are in contact with our company in the context of their professional activities,

can contact us with a report.

How Can I Reach the Reporting Office?

Reports can be submitted in text form using the links below. Anonymous reports are also possible.

digatus it group AG: https://digatus-group.sicherhinweisen.de
Alternatively, you can contact our reporting office by phone at +49 (0)821 59 98 11-15.

digatus it consulting GmbH: https://digatus-it-consulting.sicherhinweisen.de
Alternatively, you can contact our reporting office by phone at +49 (0)821 59 98 11-15.

digatus technology GmbH: https://digatus-technology.sicherhinweisen.de
Alternatively, you can contact our reporting office by phone at +49 (0)821 59 98 11-15.

If you wish, you can also arrange an appointment for a personal meeting with our reporting office through this channel.

What Can Be Reported?

The content of such a report can be specific actual or potential illegal actions, as well as illegal omissions. An example of this is an action that is criminally prohibited. Another example is an action that can be punished with a fine and whose prohibition serves to protect the rights of employees. The prerequisite is that the corresponding action or omission was committed in connection with our company within the scope of professional, business, or official activities and that the whistleblower has knowledge of this violation. However, it is also sufficient if such an action or omission is very likely to occur in the future. It is also enough if the whistleblower – that is, you – has reasonable grounds for suspicion of such a violation.

The content of a report can also be the attempt to conceal such violations, provided that the whistleblower has knowledge of this attempt or has reasonable grounds for suspicion of this attempt.

What Happens After My Report?

Our reporting office will confirm the receipt of your message within seven days at the latest. Your message will be documented; recordings or verbatim transcripts require your consent. It will then be examined whether your message relates to a relevant legal violation and whether it is substantiated. The reporting office may request further information from you. In any case, it will maintain contact with you. In addition, our reporting office will take appropriate follow-up measures – this may mean concluding the procedure due to lack of evidence, but of course also conducting an internal investigation or referring the matter to the competent authority. In principle, you will receive notification of planned and already taken follow-up measures and the reasons for these measures no later than three months after confirming receipt of your message. The documentation will generally be deleted three years after the conclusion of the procedure.

How Am I Protected?

We have entrusted PROTEQO GmbH with the operation of our reporting office. Your reports therefore initially do not reach anyone in our company, but are received by PROTEQO GmbH. They operate as an independent reporting office.

PORTEQO GmbH safeguards your identity, as well as the identity of all other persons you mention in your report. The prerequisite for your protection is that the reported information concerns violations falling within the scope of the Law for Better Protection of Whistleblowers (HinSchG). However, it is sufficient that you had reasonable grounds to believe this was the case at the time of reporting. The identity of the mentioned persons is generally only known to those responsible for receiving reports or for taking follow-up measures, as well as to persons supporting them in fulfilling these tasks. Your identity is also protected with regard to circumstances that allow conclusions to be drawn about your identity. Exceptions to identity protection apply, for example, in criminal proceedings at the request of law enforcement authorities. Access to the reports is also restricted in other respects.

The HinSchG, which our reporting office complies with, also provides for protective measures for whistleblowers who have properly approached the reporting office. The prerequisite is that the whistleblower had reasonable grounds to believe that the information reported was true at the time of reporting. It is also a prerequisite that the information concerns violations falling within the scope of the HinSchG. However, it is also sufficient if the whistleblower had reasonable grounds to believe this was the case at the time of reporting. These protective measures then include for example, the prohibition of reprisals , such as the prohibition of unjustified dismissal in response to the report. Under certain conditions, these protective measures also apply to third parties.

At the same time, the HinSchG releases you from contractual and, comprehensively, from legal confidentiality and secrecy obligations for reports to the responsible reporting office. The prerequisite is that you had reasonable grounds to believe that the disclosure of the content of the respective information was necessary to uncover a violation. It is also a prerequisite that you had reasonable grounds to believe that the information you reported was true at the time of reporting. Another prerequisite is that the information concerns violations falling within the scope of the HinSchG, or that you had reasonable grounds to believe this was the case at the time of reporting.

Who else can I turn to?

The HinSchG stipulates that you should prefer to report to the internal reporting office if the violation can be effectively addressed internally and you do not fear reprisals. We would also like to strongly encourage you to first contact our reporting office with your information. After all, any problems can naturally be solved much more easily if we become aware of them as quickly as possible – and the fastest way is through PROTEQO GmbH.

At the same time, you are free to contact an external reporting office. This applies, for example, if a violation reported to our reporting office has not been remedied. You can therefore report everything to the external reporting offices that you could report to our reporting office. The procedure after submitting your message is essentially identical for external reporting offices to the procedure at our reporting office.

However, in terms of follow-up measures, the external reporting office naturally cannot conduct internal investigations. Instead, it can comprehensively request information from those affected, insofar as this is necessary to verify the validity of your message. In principle, in addition to feedback within three months at the latest, you will also receive a notification from the external reporting office about the result of the investigations triggered by your report after their complete conclusion. However, the external reporting office can also close the procedure due to insignificance. It can also close it because your message concerns a matter for which a procedure under the HinSchG has already been concluded. The prerequisite for this is that your message does not contain any new facts and no other new circumstances justify a different approach. Moreover, the external reporting office must generally forward your message to the office responsible for clarifying, preventing, and prosecuting the violation if it is not competent or is overloaded. In all these cases of forwarding or closure, the external reporting office will inform you accordingly.

Your protection corresponds in any case to that described above when reporting to an external reporting office.

External reporting offices include, among others:

• The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. This is primarily responsible for reports on violations of supervisory law for banks, financial service providers, and payment institutions. More information about the external reporting office at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and in particular about its responsibilities can be found at Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.
• The Federal Cartel Office. This is primarily responsible for reports on violations of German or European cartel prohibition and against the German or European prohibition of abuse of market power. More information about the external reporting office at the Federal Cartel Office and in particular about its responsibilities can be found at Federal Cartel Office.
• The Federal Office of Justice. This is generally responsible for reports on violations of criminal law, regulatory offenses law, environmental protection law, consumer protection law, or law for the protection of personal data, unless the other external reporting offices according to § 20 or § 23 HinSchG are exceptionally responsible. More information about the external reporting office at the Federal Office of Justice and in particular about its responsibilities can be found at Federal Office of Justice.

You can contact the external reporting offices at least by telephone or in text form. In some cases, it may also be possible to submit an anonymous report. But even with external reporting offices, you can also arrange an appointment for a personal meeting. The external reporting offices work independently and separately from internal reporting offices.

It should be noted that for certain cases there may also be reporting procedures at bodies, institutions and other agencies of the European Union. These include the reporting channels of the European Commission, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF; https://fns.olaf.europa.eu/main_de.htm), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA; https://www.esma.europa.eu/investor-corner/make-complaint#whistleblowers) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

What do I do if I still have questions?

Of course, we cannot explain all the details of the legal regulations on reporting offices and reporting procedures here. Also, special circumstances of the individual case are often relevant, for example, not all illegal actions or omissions fall within the scope of the HinSchG (§ 2 HinSchG). At the same time, there are certain grounds for exclusion for the application of the HinSchG (§ 5 HinSchG). Also, certain specific reporting procedures take precedence over the previously described reporting procedures using the internal or external reporting offices (§ 4 Para. 1 HinSchG).

If you are unsure whether a violation could be reported in your specific case, to whom you can address your report, or what would happen after sending a message to a reporting office, you should seek legal advice in case of doubt, for example from a lawyer. However, the external reporting offices also offer comprehensive and independent information and advice on existing remedies and procedures for protection against retaliation.