Internal reporting, external reporting and public disclosure

1. Regulatory Concept & Core Standards

This video's topic is internal reporting, external reporting and public disclosure. By the end, you should be able to identify the legal role of each reporting route. We will connect the information available, the criterion guiding the decision and the action that must be recorded. Follow the case and compare your answer with the proposed response. Protection requires examination of the person, information, scope and reporting route. An internal policy can accept more subjects than the special law covers. Receipt must not be confused with automatic recognition of protection.

An external technology provider does not turn a company channel into an authority channel. Malta has specific external-disclosure conditions in articles 15 and 16. Public disclosure has a separate test under article 18A.

Apply the following rule: The First Schedule identifies external units by subject. Article 15 generally requires an internal disclosure to have been made or attempted, except for permitted direct routes. Article 16 includes reasonable grounds concerning the head’s involvement, exceptional urgency, retaliation risk, destruction of evidence, or lack of action or update within a reasonable time following an internal report. Public disclosure has separate conditions under article 18A. Do not promise an unconditional choice of any recipient.

2. Practical Implementation & Procedure

Check recipient, powers and lawful route. Apply direct-disclosure exceptions without imposing employer permission that the law does not require. Examine public publication separately. Before moving on, turn this procedure into a sequence you could explain to a colleague. Identify the first check, the action that depends on its outcome and the record that allows the decision to be reconstructed. Follow the sequence on screen and identify the point where an error would change the result.

Consider how a colleague taking over tomorrow would understand the decision. Identify the verified information and its source, who is authorised to decide and who checks the result. The record should connect the decision to the material actually used rather than repeat the whole file. State critical gaps and assign a specific action to resolve them. This makes continuity independent of one person’s memory. Apply the proposed organisational steps within legal powers. In the case, distinguish observation, conclusion and hypothesis. An observation describes available evidence, a conclusion explains what can reasonably be inferred and a hypothesis still needs checking. Do not infer motives merely from unusual behaviour. Identify which further information could change the decision and whether it can be obtained lawfully and proportionately. Incomplete knowledge justifies neither certainty of guilt nor indifference to an actual risk.

Maltese law does not provide an unconditional choice of every external channel. Read articles 15 and 16 together: an internal attempt is the general rule, with direct external routes for specific grounds such as retaliation risk or evidence destruction. The recipient depends on the First Schedule and the subject. Public disclosure requires separate assessment under article 18A. Explain the facts making the route relevant without requiring management permission that the Act does not impose.

3. Case Study & Compliance Action

One worker fears retaliation and wants to contact the authority. Another wants to publish the entire file online. Now read the case carefully. Separate established facts from information you would still need to confirm. Do not add motives or events that have not been described. This distinction matters when choosing a response proportionate to the information available.

The exercise is as follows: Do these options have identical conditions? Choose an answer and write one sentence explaining it. During the pause, compare your choice with the criteria we have just considered. Also think about the material you would retain to explain the decision later.

No. External reporting and public disclosure are different routes requiring separate assessment.

One mistake to avoid is: confusing a software provider with a competent authority.

Now apply the national rule to a second decision. An advice page is shown as the sole recipient of every report. What should be verified?

Check the recipient’s powers and function. Guidance, external receipt, investigation and protection may belong to different bodies. Apply Maltese conditions for the chosen channel and do not burden the user with steps the law does not require.