Just 48 whistleblower reports have been filed with the Justice Ministry helpline, of which 27 could not be followed up as they were outside the parameters of the law, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

Eighteen cases related to the public sector and just three were connected with the private sector while the rest were excluded because the Whistleblower Act only applies for people in employment.

Statistics were given by a Justice Ministry spokeswoman who did not, however, provide further details on the outcome of cases followed up.

Seven of the reports dealt with the tampering of some 1,000 utility meters by employees of Enemalta.

There were also 11 reports, legally referred to as cases of “internal disclosure”, that were directly handled by the whistleblower reporting officer within the respective ministry.

The remaining three cases concerned “external disclosure” as they had been filed by employees in the private sector where no structure was in place to process such reports.

Asked to give a breakdown of the number of reports lodged within other ministries, the spokeswoman said that four had been filed with the Health Ministry and one with the Finance Ministry.

In addition the Cabinet Office, Enemalta and Financial Investigation Analysis Unit received one report each.

Under the Whistleblower Act, the identity of any employee who comes forward to report improper behaviour or cases of corruption cannot be disclosed.

In addition they might also benefit from a reduction in sentence if found by a court to have committed any wrongdoing themselves.

Last month, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said the government was looking into the possibility of amending the law, so that all citizens could be treated as whistleblowers.

Another suggestion put forward was to set up a centralised unit, possibly under Parliament’s jurisdiction in similar fashion to the Ombudsman’s Office and the Auditor General.