1. INTRODUCTION AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

In accordance with Organic Law 5/2010 of 22 June amending the Criminal Code, the legal person is criminally liable for the offences expressly contemplated in the Law. One of its duties, in accordance with LO 1/2015 of 30 March, is the obligation to have an organisational and management model that includes the appropriate surveillance and control measures to prevent crimes or significantly reduce the risk of their commission.

The purpose of this Regulation is to develop the Whistleblowing Channel of Modelical Consultoría S.L, (hereinafter Modelical) to adapt it to the requirements of the European Union Directive 2019/1937, also called Whistleblowing Directive, regarding the protection of whistleblower rights and whose transposition has become effective in Spain through Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory infringements and the fight against corruption.

In order to comply with this duty, Modelical makes available to all its directors, managers and employees, as well as to its customers, suppliers and other third parties with whom it has business ties, a channel through which they can report, confidentially, any suspicion or knowledge of irregular or illegal conduct that has taken place or is taking place in the organisation.

The Whistleblowing Channel shall be governed by the principles of independence, objectivity, authority, confidentiality, absence of reprisals and presumption of innocence.

2. SCOPE OF APPLICATION

Target Scope

This Regulation establishes that the content of the complaints or communications sent through the Channel must be related to one of the following categories:

  • Conduct that may involve a criminal offence or any other regulatory offence, and which takes place within Modelical.
  • Irregularities in public procurement or other areas of interaction with government, supplier relations, environmental protection and product safety.  
  • Conflicts of interest in decision-making.
  • Conduct not in accordance with Modelical’s internal regulations (Code of Conduct).
  • Anti-competitive conduct and possible market infringements.
  • Other conduct or behaviour that could pose a significant risk to Modelical’s liability or reputation.

With regard to the characteristics of the complaints, it should be clarified that: they must be communicated in good faith and knowingly by an identified employee or third party through the established means and related to the issues set out above. 

Subjective scope

This Regulation is applicable to any natural or legal person having any kind of relationship with Modelical and reporting or being reported for an irregular, unlawful or criminal act, especially aimed at:

  • Employees.
  • Self-employed collaborators.  
  • Shareholders.
  • Persons belonging to the administrative, management or supervisory body of the company, including non-executive members.
  • Whistleblowers who communicate or publicly disclose information on breaches obtained in the framework of an employment or statutory relationship that has already ended, volunteers, trainees, traineeship trainees, whether or not they receive remuneration.

3. COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

For these purposes, Modelical places at the disposal of these persons and, in order to centralise all types of complaints and/or communications, the following means of communication:

E-mail: ethics@modelical.com

4. COMPLAINT REQUIREMENTS

As established in this Regulation, a complaint is considered to be the bringing to the attention of the complainant of one or more irregular, illicit or criminal acts.

In any case, any complaint must contain at least:

  • Identification of the complainant: This is not mandatory but recommended for the purpose of notification of the status of the investigation. Anonymous complaints can be submitted regardless of the above.
  • Reported irregularity or infringement: A clear and detailed description of the facts or circumstances that constitute an infringement or irregularity and that motivate the filing of the complaint..
  • Provision of evidence: Any document or evidence available that may support the facts denounced in the previous section.
  • Identification of those responsible for the irregularity, if known.

If, after evaluating the content of the complaint, it lacks any of the minimum requirements set out above or the facts described are implausible, it will be closed.

5. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE WHISTLEBLOWER

Whistleblower safeguards:

The necessary guarantees are in place to maintain the security of communications, as well as confidentiality, the protection of any personal data, the right to non-retaliation and the guarantee of being informed of the resolution or closure of the complaint.

Duties of the whistleblower:

On the other hand, the complainant is required to act in good faith, to provide data and evidence related to the alleged facts, the duty of confidentiality of the facts until they are resolved.

6. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE RESPONDENT

Safeguards for the respondent:

Persons who have been denounced through the Channel may in no case be penalised for the simple communication or notification of the denounced fact, it being necessary to carry out all prior checks on the veracity of the communications and that the persons involved are given the opportunity to offer an explanation of the facts denounced.

Defendants shall have the right to be informed as soon as possible of the facts of which they are accused.

They will be informed of the following:

  • Person responsible for the management.
  • Reported facts.
  • Procedure for processing the complaint.
  • Rights to which you are entitled:
  1. Right of access to the data recorded, with the exception of the identity of the complainant and other persons concerned by the file. The right to rectify personal data that may be incorrect or incomplete.
  2. The right to be informed of the resolution or closure of the complaint.

7. MANAGEMENT AND COMPETENCE

The Modelical Ethics Committee will be the guarantor of the Whistleblowing Channel, and in any case Sarai Zaballa Paraiso is established as the System Manager (hereinafter the Manager), who, with the support of the Committee when required, has the following powers and responsibilities:

  • Manage the Whistleblowing Channel tool.
  • Analysing the content of the complaints received and deciding on their admissibility for processing.
  • Conduct an internal investigation of the facts.
  • Drawing up a report on the result of the investigation carried out, stating whether the facts reported have been accredited and, if so, proposing the appropriate measures to resolve the incident, as well as referring to the Management the disciplinary measures to be taken.
  • Resolving doubts and questions that arise in relation to the Whistleblowing Channel.
  • Maintaining the register of internal complaints.
  • Report to management on the operation of the Channel.

8. RECEIPT AND PROCESSING OF THE COMPLAINT

8.1 Register

Once the complaint has been communicated through the aforementioned channels, the Controller will proceed to register it in the Complaints Database, filling in the following details:

  • Date of receipt.
  • Identification code.
  • Status of the complaint.
  • Action taken (if any).
  • Closing date.

An acknowledgement of receipt confirming receipt of the complaint will be issued to the complainant within 7 working days.

Complaints received through the Complaints Channel and which relate to situations of discrimination, moral harassment and sexual or gender-based harassment shall be processed, where appropriate, in accordance with the specific procedures that exist for these matters.

8.2 Fact-finding

Once the complaint has been registered, the person in charge shall check whether or not it clearly and evidently states facts constituting an infringement, irregularity or breach of legal regulations. Depending on the result of the verifications and within 15 working days from the registration of the complaint, a decision will be taken as follows:

  1. Dismissal of the complaint. The complaint shall be rejected as inadmissible if: the facts reported are not plausible, do not constitute an infringement of the law, are unfounded or if there is bad faith on the part of the complainant.
  2. Admit the complaint for processing. In such a case, it should be assessed whether the complaint should be dealt with urgently.

In both cases, the complainant will be informed of the admissibility or inadmissibility of the complaint within 5 working days. 

8.3 Research 

In case of admission of the complaint, the person in charge shall carry out all those actions and consultations that he/she considers appropriate aimed at ascertaining the veracity of the facts described. If the person in charge considers it appropriate, he/she may extend the actions to the rest of the members of the Ethics Committee until the complaint is resolved.

Firstly, the Controller will contact the complainant, briefly informing him/her of the facts attributed to him/her, informing him/her of his/her possibility of submitting written allegations and informing him/her of the processing of his/her personal data. In no case shall the identity of the complainant be disclosed.

At this stage, all those affected and witnesses will be heard, and any steps deemed necessary to clarify the facts will be taken. All employees are obliged to cooperate, and their intervention will be strictly confidential.

The hearing shall include at least, whenever possible, an interview with the person allegedly responsible for the alleged facts, while respecting the presumption of innocence.

The Responsible will assume custody of each and every one of the evidences collected from the actions carried out. A maximum period of 3 months is established from the start of the investigation to draw up and communicate the report.

The Report:

Once all the actions have been completed, the person in charge will issue a report on the procedures carried out, which will be reported to the competent body for decision-making.

This report shall contain at least:

  • A statement of the alleged facts.
  • The classification of the complaint as urgent in order to know its priority or not in its treatment.
  • The proceedings carried out to establish the facts, the assessment of the evidence and the conclusions reached.

9. FILE RESOLUTION

Once the processing of the reported facts has been concluded, the report has been issued and reported to the competent body, the latter will be responsible for taking the appropriate internal measures, without prejudice to the legal responsibilities that may correspond to the Courts and Tribunals.

The competent body shall, at the earliest opportunity, take one of the following decisions:

  • If the existence of an infringement is NOT established:

If it is established that no irregularity has been committed, the file shall be closed without further action being taken, the case shall be closed and the decision shall be notified.

  • In case the existence of an infringement is deemed to have been established:

If it is established that an infringement has been committed, it shall be reported to the area concerned and to the management for disciplinary purposes.:

  • In the case of an administrative offence for which the administration itself may be competent, the latter will be informed in order to initiate the appropriate sanctioning procedure.
  • If the above facts could constitute a criminal offence, they will be brought to the attention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
  • In case the facts may give rise to disciplinary liability of any employee of the company, the Management will be informed in order to apply the appropriate measures in accordance with the labour regulations in force. 

10. PRESERVATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION

With the aim of achieving a maximum level of involvement and security for all those involved in the communication of complaints, Modelical will provide the necessary means to ensure that such communications are treated with the utmost confidentiality at all stages of the process.

The details of the persons making the complaint, as well as the allegations made, may be provided to the administrative or judicial authorities, insofar as they are required to do so by those authorities as a result of any proceedings arising from the subject matter of the complaint. 

Such transfer of data to administrative or judicial authorities shall always take place in full compliance with personal data protection legislation.

In addition, and only when disciplinary measures may be taken against an employee, access shall be granted to staff with human resources management and control functions, in full compliance with legislation on the protection of personal data.

By sending personal information through the Complaints Channel, you expressly and unequivocally consent to the processing of such personal data.

The complainant may exercise his/her rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition with respect to his/her personal data at any time by sending a written communication to the following e-mail address: ethics@modelical.com

As regards the period of conservation of the personal data processed, they must be deleted within a maximum period of three months after the end of the procedure for processing the complaint or, where appropriate, from the end of the disciplinary, administrative or judicial procedure to which they had given rise. After this time, if the data are necessary to continue investigating the facts, they may continue to be processed for the purposes of the investigation carried out.

11. REVIEW AND IMPROVEMENT

This procedure may be reviewed periodically by the person in charge, in order to detect possible weaknesses or points for improvement, updating and/or perfecting the contents that are considered necessary. 

It should also be reviewed in the event of any updates to regulations and/or internal processes that may be affected by this procedure. 

 

12. COMPLAINT FORM

It shall be sent to ethics@modelical.com and shall contain at least the following information:

  • Details of the complainant:

Name and surname (not mandatory)

Relationship with Modelical (employee, supplier, customer…) 

Date of the events

  • Details of the defendant/s

Name and surname (if known)

Position and Department to which it belongs

  • Reported facts (Clear and detailed description of the situations that have occurred)

Evidence of the facts (The documents that may support the alleged facts are attached)