This Tuesday, August 26, 2025, the National Assembly will examine in plenary session Bill No. 13/2025 on the status and protection of whistleblowers, after its passage in committee. During the examination by the intercommittee on Laws, Human Rights, Decentralization, Labor and Communication, the deputies welcomed a major step forward for transparency, good governance and the fight against corruption, while raising several concerns. The main reservation concerns the financial compensation provided for whistleblowers or their nominees.

Several MPs fear that the proposed percentages will encourage the professionalization of whistleblowing and slanderous denunciations, distorting the spirit of the law, which should prioritize the public interest. They suggest strengthening penalties for false accusations and limiting rewards to cases of final conviction. The MPs also recommend broadening the scope of the law beyond corruption and economic offenses to include areas such as public health, the environment, and any issue of public interest. They criticize the professional activity requirement in the definition of whistleblower, which they consider exclusionary, and advocate that any citizen reporting illegal acts or acts contrary to the public interest should benefit from protection, regardless of their status.

In private companies, there are concerns about the role of the internal referent, which could compromise the anonymity of whistleblowers, exposing employees to reprisals such as demotions or denial of promotion.

Finally, the deputies question several points: the self-denunciation of nominees to escape criminal sanctions; the use of photos or videos as evidence, which could expose the launchers to prosecution; the terms of remuneration in the absence of a financial conviction; the taxable or non-taxable nature of the rewards; and the governance of the Special Fund for the Recovery of Illicit Assets, which they want to be financed solely from recovered assets and public funds.