Corruption prevention and whistleblower protection

Corruption takes many forms. What they all have in common, however, is that an official function, a function in business or a political mandate is abused in order to seek or obtain personal advantages and material or immaterial damage occurs. In most cases, this abuse is concealed.

The most well-known corruption offenses are:

• Bribery
• Bribery
• Granting of advantages
• Acceptance of Advantage

Be brave!

Inform the Anti-Corruption Unit immediately if you become aware of facts that suggest a concrete suspicion of corruption. Do not be afraid to contact the Anti-Corruption Unit. They will be able to tell you in each individual case to what extent a suspicion is justified.

The internal reporting office for whistleblowers in accordance with the HinSchG is aimed at all employees of the City of Hilden and all persons who have obtained information about grievances or legal violations as a result of their professional activities or in advance of such activities.

If you have any indications that employees of the City of Hilden are not acting in the interests of the city or are not acting correctly, for example by accepting bribes, violating procurement regulations, abusing their professional position for personal gain or perhaps even committing criminal offenses, you can help us by reporting this.

For this purpose, an email inbox has been set up that can only be accessed by the Internal Reporting Office. Please describe as specifically as possible who did what and when. Please provide your contact details so that questions about the matter can be asked later.

Anonymous reports are generally possible, but make the necessary investigations more difficult. Please note that metadata is stored when a report is sent by email, which theoretically allows the IP address to be analyzed, for example.

The following reporting channels have been set up:

• Email: hinweise@hilden.de
• Phone: 02103/72-1166
• Letter: City of Hilden, Interne Meldestelle/AKB, Am Rathaus 1, 40721 Hilden
  marked -confidential-
• In person: At the town hall, room 208, during normal opening hours or by appointment

Among other things, the administration has set itself "rules of conduct", which stipulate, for example, that employees of the city administration may not accept gifts or benefits of any kind unless the respective superiors expressly approve this in advance. The aim is to avoid any appearance of being receptive to personal benefits in the course of performing their duties.

In accordance with the Anti-Corruption Act, members of the Council and its committees are obliged to provide the Mayor with written information about their financial and personal circumstances, insofar as they may be relevant to the performance of their duties on the Council or its committees. The City Council has stipulated the details of this information in the Code of Conduct. The public details of the individual elected representatives can be viewed in the citizen information system.

In addition to the requirements of the Municipal Code, the members of the Council undertook for the first time in 2001 to sign a declaration of honor on corruption prevention. Among other things, they undertake to promote the prevention of corruption in all respects and not to use the knowledge they obtain as elected officials for their own economic interests or knowingly pass this knowledge on to third parties.

Since February 2003, the City of Hilden has been a member of the international organization Transparency International. This organization campaigns worldwide against corruption and nepotism in government and administrative circles.