What is it?
Escalation is the referral of cases to persons who aren't involved in the claimed offence. Typically, escalation occurs at a higher level of the organizational hierarchy, although there can also be horizontal escalation.
The primary purpose of escalation is to avoid conflicts of interest with those responsible for reviewing, investigating, and responding if the communication contains allegations against such persons.
Mode activation
Activation and setting up the escalation occurs at will of the company when implementing the system and completing the system implementation protocol:
Define the list of persons whose mention in the message will lead to the automatic transmission of the message to escalation;
Determine the responsible for coordinating escalated messages. Typically, this person is the head of internal audit or the head/secretary of the audit committee;
Define the team that will have access to the messages and act as the response team.
You can activate the company's escalation mode at any time during system operation.
Access mode
Once a message has been submitted for escalation:
The message is defined as having restricted access. Initially, only the coordinator responsible for the escalation has access to it. Even the system administrator cannot access the message.
the message doesn’t show in the reports of the regular company response team. It is only listed in the total number of cases.
Transmitting a message "to" and "from" an escalation
A message on escalation can be sent through the whistleblower web portal when the message is created.
The Coordinator can also refer any case to escalation if he or she concludes there is a risk of a conflict of interest. This can be done either before or during an investigation.
The coordinator responsible for escalation has the ability to de-escalate at any time - to refer the case to the regular response team for review.