FAQ

Article 2 of the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers lays down that a whistleblower is a natural
person who reports information about an infringement in the institution which he/she has become aware
of through the existing or previous official, employment or contractual (consulting, independent work,
traineeship, internship, volunteering, etc.) relationship with that institution or during the process of
recruitment or other pre-contractual relationship, also a self-employed person, a shareholder or a person

belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory body of the institution (including non-
executive members, as well as volunteers and paid or unpaid interns), or any natural person who works

under the supervision and management of contractors, subcontractors and/or suppliers and who is
recognized by the competent authority as a whistleblower.

The Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers lays down that an infringement means a possible
criminal offence, administrative offence, disciplinary offence or a violation of employment duties, also a
serious breach of mandatory rules of professional ethics, an attempt to conceal such infringement or any
other violation of law affecting or prejudicing the public interest, which is being arranged, is being
committed or has been committed and of which a whistleblower becomes aware by virtue of his or her
current or previous official, employment or contractual (consulting, independent work, traineeship,
internship, volunteering, etc.) relationship with the institution, or during the process of recruitment or
other pre-contractual relationship.
Information about infringements is provided for the purposes of protection of the public interest.
Provision of information for the sole purpose of protecting personal interests is not considered a report.

Information about infringements is reported in a written form.
A person who is reporting information about the infringement, must complete a report in the form
approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. A person who is reporting information about
the infringement, can submit the report in the following ways:
directly after arriving at (by choice):
Prosecutor General’s Office (Rinktinės g. 5A, 01515 Vilnius),
Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Rinktinės g. 5A, 09201 Vilnius),
Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Laisvės al. 32, 44240 Kaunas),
Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Vilties g. 12, 92231 Klaipėda),
Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Respublikos g. 54, 35173 Panevėžys)
Šiauliai Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Dvaro g. 90, 76240 Šiauliai);
by sending the report by mail to the addresses specified in paragraph 1 above;
by sending the report to the e-mail address of the Prosecutor General’s Office
praneseju.apsauga@prokuraturos.lt.

No. The Prosecutor's Office does not investigate reports and informs the person who submitted the report
accordingly, if:
1) the report is based on the information that is manifestly contrary to reality;
2) the person addresses the Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly in relation to the same circumstances where the
previous report was examined in accordance with the procedure laid down in this Law and a decision was
passed in relation to such report.
The person who reported information about the infringement is notified about a decision on the refusal to
examine the report and the grounds for the decision no later than within 2 working days.

A person may report information about the infringement:
1) through an internal whistleblowing channel available within the institution where the person is (was)
employed;
2) directly to the competent authority (the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania, hereinafter,
the Prosecutor’s Office);
3) in public.
A report is submitted directly to the Prosecutor’s Office when a person becomes aware of the elements of
a criminal offence which is possibly being committed or has been committed.
A person reports information about the infringement directly to the Prosecutor’s Office in the event of
existence of at least one of the following circumstances:

1) the infringement is of essential importance to the public interest;
2) the infringement must be prevented or terminated within the shortest possible period of time since
otherwise it may cause serious harm;
3) the heads of the institution or the persons bound by employment, official or contractual relations with
the institution are possibly committing or have committed the infringements themselves;
4) information about the infringement was reported through the internal whistleblowing channel but no
reply was received or no action was taken in response to the information reported, or the measures taken
were ineffective;
5) there are grounds to believe that reporting of information about the infringement through the internal
whistleblowing channel may compromise the whistleblower’s anonymity or the person’s confidentiality,
or attempts will be made to conceal the infringement reported, or the person who reported about the
infringement will be adversely affected;
6) the institution does not have a functioning internal whistleblowing channel;
7) the person cannot use the internal whistleblowing channel because he/she no longer has any
employment, official or other legal relations with the institution.

1) a risk to public security or health or to the life or health of a person;
2) risks to the environment;
3) obstruction of or unlawful interference with the investigations conducted by law enforcement
authorities or administration of justice by courts;
4)financing of illegal activities;
5) illegal or non-transparent use of public funds or assets;
6) illicit assets;
7) concealing the consequences of an infringement, obstructing determination of the extent of the
consequences;
8) infringement specified in the list approved by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania
drawn up talking into account the scope of application of the European Union legislation specified in
Directive (EU) 2019/1937;
9) damage to the financial interests of the European Union, as referred to in Article 325 of the Treaty on
the Functioning of the European Union and described in more detail in the relevant instruments of the
European Union;
10) infringements related to the internal market as referred to in Article 26(2) of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union, including violations of the competition and state aid rules of the
European Union, as well as infringements related to the internal market due to actions that are contrary to
the corporate tax rules or agreements aimed at obtaining a tax advantage detrimental to the object or
purpose of the applicable corporate tax law;
11) other infringements.

The Law does not provide for a definitive list of infringements that may reported, which means that any
type of infringement of public interest may be reported.

In accordance with the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers, the following measures of protection are
applied:
1) ensuring secure channels for reporting about infringements;
2) ensuring confidentiality;
3) prohibition to take adverse actions;
4) the right to be remunerated for valuable information;
5) the right to compensation;
6) ensuring free legal aid;
7) exemption from liability;
8) the right to receive comprehensive, impartial information and free advice on whistleblowing
procedures and remedies.

It is important that such measures as the possibility of using a secure channel for reporting information
about infringements, ensuring confidentiality, the prohibition of take adverse actions and the right to
receive free consultations are applied from the moment of receiving information about the infringement
by the institution or competent authority to all persons who reported information about infringements in
accordance with the procedure established by this Law, regardless of whether or not the person who
reported information about the infringement was recognized as a whistleblower.
Other measures such as the right to be remunerated for valuable information, the right to receive
compensation, ensuring free legal aid and exemption from liability may be applied from the day when the
competent authority recognized the person who reported information about the infringement as a
whistleblower.

A report of the adverse actions may be submitted by the whistleblower:
directly after arriving at (by choice):
Prosecutor General’s Office (Rinktinės g. 5A, 01515 Vilnius),
Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Rinktinės g. 5A, 09201 Vilnius),
Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Laisvės al. 32, 44240 Kaunas),
Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Vilties g. 12, 92231 Klaipėda),
Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Respublikos g. 54, 35173 Panevėžys)
Šiauliai Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Dvaro g. 90, 76240 Šiauliai);
by sending the report by mail to the addresses specified in above;

by sending the report to the e-mail address of the Prosecutor General’s Office
praneseju.apsauga@prokuraturos.lt.

The same guarantees of confidentiality apply to all persons who have reported an infringement. This
means that confidentiality is ensured even in cases where the status of a whistleblower is not granted or
the information is not confirmed during the investigation.

No. In the report, the person must indicate his/her name, surname, personal identification number or date
of birth, contact details.

If the person reporting an infringement wishes to submit a free-form report instead of filling in a
prescribed form, he/she must indicate in such a report that the report is submitted in accordance with the
Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers.
The report must indicate the specific factual circumstances of the information, the person who is
preparing, is participating or has participated in the commission of the infringement, the information on
whether the person has already reported about this infringement and if so, who was notified, whether a
response was received, the name, surname, personal identification number or the date of birth, residence
(receipt of correspondence) address or the e-mail address and any other communication detail of the
person submitting the report, and if possible, the report should be accompanied by written or other
available data about the infringement.

Yes. Having finished the investigation of information on the infringement reported by the whistleblower and having taken the relevant decision, or having received information from the other authority that examined the report, the Prosecutor’s Office notifies the whistleblower about the results of examination. 

A decision not to investigate the report under Article 6(7) of the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers may be appealed against to the immediate head of the prosecutor who made the decision in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Description of the Procedure of Servicing of Persons at the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania.

The authority or the institution will not be informed of the fact that the whistleblower has reported
information. During the investigation, in order to assess the information objectively, it is possible that the
authority or the institution will be asked to provide documents or other information. However, in all cases,
as laid down in the law on the Protection of Whistleblower, every authority and person who receives or
examines information about an infringement, must ensure the confidentiality of the person who reported
information about the infringement.

A requirement to ensure confidentiality is not applied when:
requested in writing by the person who is reporting or has reported information about the infringement;
the person reports information known to be false.

Having received the report that complies with the requirements laid down in Article 4(6) of the Law on
the Protection of Whistleblowers, the Prosecutor’s Office will ensure the confidentiality of the person
who submitted the report from the moment of receiving it.
If a person reports an infringement without complying with the requirements of the form of the report laid
down in Article 4(6) of the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers, but the information contained in the
report complies with other requirements laid down in this Law, the competent authority may recognise the
person as a whistleblower. In such cases, the confidentiality of the person is ensured from the moment the
person is recognised as a whistleblower.
If the Prosecutor's Office has refused to recognize the person who reported information about the
infringement as a whistleblower and has forwarded the information about the infringement to another
authority in accordance with Article 6(3) of this law, the confidentiality is ensured by the authority to
which the information about the infringement has been forwarded.

A person who has reported the information known to be false or has disclosed a state or service secret or a
professional secret, is liable in accordance with the procedure established by legal acts. However, a person
is liable for damages caused by reporting information about an infringement only where it is
demonstrated that the person could not reasonably have believed that the information about the
infringement he/she reported was correct.

A decision of the Prosecutor’s Office to refuse to recognize the person as a whistleblower may be appealed against in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Administrative Proceedings.

Yes. The status of a whistleblower may be revoked if there is a request from the whistleblower to revoke the status of a whistleblower or if it is found that the whistleblower intentionally reported false information about the infringement.

Confidentiality of the persons who have reported information about the infringements is guaranteed during the public administration, official (disciplinary) infringement investigation procedures or administrative or criminal proceedings to the extent to which such confidentiality is objectively possible in the light of the information reported and its relationship with the whistleblower. The data of the whistleblower which enable identification of the whistleblower may be provided only to the person or authority engaged in the examination of information about the infringement.
It is prohibited to provide any information about the whistleblowers to the persons not participating in the investigation.