Moot parliamentary session, a project of the Croatian branch of the Law School Students NGO (ELSA) was held on 17 April 2019 in the Croatian parliament (Sabor). This year the law schools’ students from Osijek, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb with the students of Administrative School from Vukovar discussed the Whistle blowers Act, which mandated the Ombudsman institution as a competent body for external reporting of irregularities.
Deputy Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, spoke about her personal experience in initiating and participating in the work of the Mute parliamentary session in Croatia and emphasises the value of an additional engagement during the studies in such projects. She welcomed recent adoption of the Act on protection of whistle blowers which sends an important social message and ensures much better protection of “whistle blowers”. Nevertheless, even before its implementation some shortcomings are also observed, for example, not all employers are obliged to ensure an internal canal for reporting of irregularities and not enough funds are allocated to the Ombudsman for its new mandate.
In their discussion the law student recognised all shortcomings, expressed during the process of drafting the Act by the Office of the Ombudswoman, but also put emphasis on the importance of the whistle blowers protection in denouncing corruption.