Acknowledgement of receipt: seven days

After receiving a report, the entity should generally notify the reporting person of receipt within seven days. Communication must respect the exceptions in the law, including situations where it could compromise identity protection.

Planned or adopted measures: three months

The law provides for communication to the reporting person, within the applicable period, of measures planned or adopted to follow up the report and their grounds. In practice, this requires knowing when the case arrived, who owns it and what has been decided.

Three months does not necessarily mean “case closed”

The deadline concerns information about follow-up. An investigation may depend on complexity, third parties or other procedures.

Internal deadlines

In addition to legal periods, the organisation should define internal times for triage, assignment, contact, information gathering, review and decision. These prevent work from waiting until the legal limit.

How software can support control

  • Automatically record the case creation date.
  • Associate an owner, priority and status.
  • Set deadlines for internal transitions.
  • Generate alerts before a date is exceeded.
  • Record messages, decisions and changes in the history.

UNOVOX supports configurable deadlines and operational indicators. Configuration should reflect the organisation’s approved procedure.

Official sources: Portuguese Law 93/2021 — Diário da República and MENAC whistleblower-protection FAQ. This content does not replace legal advice.