PETERKA & PARTNERS Law firm registered under company file No. 302/2009 at Sofia City Court, with registered address at 96, G.S. Rakovski Str., 3rd floor, Sofia, Bulgaria, UIC 175688896 (“Company”) has established and maintains an internal whistleblowing channel for violations of certain Bulgarian and European Union legal acts as per the Law on Protection of Persons Filing Reports or Publicly Disclose Information on Breaches, promulgated in the State Gazette on 2 May 2023 (“Act”). You will find below detailed information on the conditions and procedures for reporting breaches under the Act.

WHAT IS A REPORT ON BREACH?

A report on breach is the communication (oral or in writing) of any information about breaches of certain Bulgarian and European Union legal acts that has been submitted in accordance with the Act and this procedure, including reasonable suspicions of actual or potential breaches that have been committed or are likely to be committed in the Company, as well as attempts to conceal such breach.

FOR WHAT KIND OF BREACHES CAN YOU SUBMIT A REPORT?

Reportable breaches are actions or omissions that are unlawful and relate to Bulgarian legislation or EU acts in the following areas: public procurements; financial services, products and markets or preventing money laundering schemes and terrorist financing; product safety and compliance; transport safety; environmental protection; radiation protection and nuclear safety; food and feed safety, animal health and welfare; public health; consumer protection; privacy and data protection and network and information systems security. Reportable breaches also cover actions or omissions contrary to the object or purpose of the rules in the said European Union acts.

You can also submit a report for the following actions and omissions:

• breaches affecting the financial interests of the European Union according to Art. 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;
• breaches of internal market rules within the meaning of Art. 26, para. 2 of the Treaty of the functioning of the European Union, including the European Union rules and Bulgarian legislation on competition, State aid and corporate taxation, as well as breaches related to cross-border tax schemes, the purpose of which is to obtain a tax advantage which is contrary to the object or purpose of the applicable corporate tax law.
• crimes subject to prosecution by the state of which the whistleblower has become aware in connection with the performance of his or her work or duties; 
• breaches of the general rules for payment of public state and municipal liabilities;
• breaches of the labor legislation;
• breaches of the legislation for performance of state function.

The procedure described herein can’t be used to report breaches for the protection of classified information according to Art. 1, para. 3 of the Classified Information Protection Act, as well as breaches that became known to individuals practicing law who are under a statutory obligation of professional secrecy, breaches of the secrecy of health information as per art. 27 Health Act as well as breaches of the rules for award of public procurements in the field of defense and national security, when in the scope of Art. 346 TFEU .

WHO CAN SUBMIT A REPORT?

Any physical person can file a report on breaches he/she became aware of in the context of his/her relation with the Company (work related context), namely in his/her capacity of: employee as per Art. 45 TFEU or other person who works regardless of the nature of work of the means of payment or the source of financing; is self-employed as per Art. 49 TFEU including person who works without being employed and/or performs a liberal profession and/or craft activity; volunteer, paid or unpaid and intern; shareholder, sole owner of the capital, member of management or supervisory body; person who works for a natural person or a legal entity, contractors, its subcontractors or suppliers; a person whose employment relationship is about to begin if information on a breach has been acquired in the course of the selection process or other precontractual relations; employee, where the information is received within a terminated employment relationship.

HOW CAN YOU SUBMIT A REPORT?

A report can be submitted in written form through the channel established for this purpose, to the following e-mail address of the Deputy-Director whistleblowing@peterkapartners.bg or to whistleblowing2@peterkapartners.bg if the report is filed against the Deputy-Director. The report will be reviewed and subsequent actions will be carried out in such a way that conflict of interests to be avoided. 

A report can be filed also orally by phone and, upon your request, by means of a physical meeting with the Deputy-Director within an agreed reasonable timeframe. An oral report against the Deputy-Director can be filled by phone to the Director and, respectively, by means of a physical meeting with the Director of the Company.

ARE THERE REQUIREMENTS TO THE REPORTS?

A report in writing should be filed in the form available here: BG Reporting-Form.docx (live.com) and has to contain at least the following information:

• the names, address and phone number of the reporting person; the e-mail address used to submit the report is considered the e-mail address of the reporting person;
• the name of the persons, against whom the report is submitted and their place of work, if the report is submitted against specific persons and they are known;
• specific information on a reportable breach or a realistic threat of such a breach being committed, the place and period of the breach, if already committed, a description of the action or relevant circumstances that are known to the reporting person;
• date of filing;
• signature, including electronic signature where, for the purposes of filing and processing of the report the legal force of the simple electronic signature and the advanced electronic signature shall be considered equal to that of the handwritten one.

Reports which refer to a breach committed in more than two years before the filing of the report as well as anonymous reports and reports on breaches which do not fall within the scope of the Act, indicated above, and the content of which does not provide indication that the report is plausible will not be admissible.

The report can be filed by a proxy explicitly authorized by means of a power of attorney in writing, which does not need to be notarized. In this case the original power of attorney needs to be attached to the report.

COMMUNICATION  
 
The person responsible for handling of reports shall maintain the communication with you and will notify you on:

• the receipt of the report, including the information on the identification number and the unique identification number under which the report was registered and date, within 7 days of receipt;
• any irregularities in the report giving you a deadline to remedy them;
• the need for further information, clarifications, explanations on the report; a failure to provide such information is not a basis for the rejection of the report but it may hinder or obstruct the proper review and subsequent actions on the report;
• actions taken in regards to the report within no more than 3 months from confirmation on the receipt of the report;
• the forwarding of the report to the Commission for Protection of Personal Data or the prosecution in view of the need for actions taken in scope of their competence;
• the procedures for external filling of reports to the Commission for Protection of Personal data and, where appropriate, to the EU institutions, bodies, services and agencies;
• the possibility for you to address your report to the competent authorities if your rights are affected;
• the need for disclosure of your identity where applicable.

Communication regarding the report and actions carried out in relation to the report will be held through e-mail or, if this is not possible, via mail at the address indicated in the report.

PROTECTION GRANTED TO THE REPORTING PERSON

The Act explicitly prohibits any form of retaliation towards reporting persons, including acts of repression or placing them in an unfavorable position as well as threads or attempts thereto, if the reporting person:

• had reasonable grounds to believe that the information on breaches reported was true at the time of reporting and that such information concerns any of the breaches indicated hereinabove; and
• reported the breach under the conditions described herein.

Access to the report and all documents to it is limited to authorized persons only who sign a declaration for the absence of a conflict of interests for each report they handle. In addition, unless consent was granted by the reporting person thereto, his/her identity and any other information from which it may be directly or indirectly deduced can only be revealed in exceptional cases indicated in the Act.