Building Trust:
Oslo Municipality’s Journey to Scaled, Safe and Simple
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing fosters trust and transparency for everyone, regardless of an individual’s role, position, or background.
As any organization grows, the risk for misconduct increases and so does the complexity of its whistleblowing procedures, structure and supporting software systems.
With its new whistleblowing system, Oslo Municipality empowers 55.000 employees and 700.000 residents to safely report misconduct within its operations. The new system makes whistleblowing simpler, more structured and more efficient.
A Safer Channel for Every Voice
Whistleblowing levels the playing field for reporting on misconduct, without the bias that comes with relationships, seniority and status.
In Norway, establishing whistleblowing procedures is not only a moral consideration, but a legal requirement. Any organization who employs 5 or more people is legally required to have documented procedures for whistleblowing, and ensure this information is communicated to all employees.
Oslo is the largest municipality in Norway, governing more than 700 thousand citizens and employing 50 thousand people across 45 divisions.
They recognize that every employee and citizen has the right to report on misconduct within its organization, ranging from misuse of authority and corruption, to breaches of personal data security and threats to life or health.
Anyone who lives in or works with Oslo municipality should have access to the local and central whistleblowing channel. Ensuring fair and equal access to whistleblowing across the entire organization, poses quite the challenge for both structure and software.
For instance, agencies under Oslo municipality vary drastically in size and structure.
The Department of Education employs 17 thousand employees, almost a third of all employees in the municipality, while other agencies employ less than 100 employees. That can increase the risk of inconsistent handling and highlights the need for a unified whistleblowing practice.
There are local whistleblowing practices within agencies, and a central practice overseeing and handling cases of a certain nature. With the old implementation, roughly 80% of all cases went directly to the central channel. One goal with the new system, has been to increase the number of reports that go directly to the correct agency.
As there is risk for bias among case handlers, the central whistleblowing channel is made available to everyone, ensuring that any individual can submit a report there if needed. However, cases are only processed centrally when they meet defined criteria, otherwise, they may be routed back to the proper agency for handling. The central channel also allows subcontractors who don’t belong to a specific agency to send in reports.
A call for improvement: The 2021 audit
In 2021, the Office of the City Auditor conducted a thorough audit of Oslo municipality’s whistleblowing practices and found several areas for improvement.
The report documented that some cases experienced long handling times and highlighted a risk of inconsistent practices across departments.
It also emphasized the need for stronger protection against retaliation and measures to safeguard impartiality among case handlers.
These findings underscored the importance of clear guidelines, consistent routines, and supportive technology to ensure that each report is managed fairly and transparently. The new system contributes by providing a uniform structure and equal access to information, while formal guidelines continue to play a role in safeguarding equal treatment.
Solution:
Equal & Anonymous Whistleblowing for all
To meet the legal requirements and organizational complexity of whistleblowing across Oslo Municipality, we partnered with the city to design and deliver Oslo’s new whistleblowing solution: a centralized reporting and case management system, built using Compose Enterprise and Compose Case Management.
The solution supports fair, accessible, and structured handling of whistleblowing cases across 45 divisions and multiple user groups.
Together we created a solution built to reinforce trust, reduce case handling time, enable anonymous dialogue and support consistent, transparent practices across the entire municipality.
Key enhancements introduced in the new system include:
Project Highlights
Centralized System:
All divisions use the same system and process
System Scope:
45 divisions with local handlers, with private role based user access.
Number of people with access:
750.000 people
Products: Compose Enterprise + Compose Case Management
Municipality Structured intake
The initial report process has been reworked for better structure and routing from the start.
Users begin by selecting their preferred level of anonymity:
- Fully anonymous, with secure dialogue access
- Anonymous & notified, via email-only updates – only the automation knows the address.
- Identified, using their name and contact details.
They are then guided through identifying their relationship to the municipality, whether they are an employee, subcontractor, or external party. Based on this input, the case is routed to the proper agency when known, or to the central whistleblowing channel if not.
Users can also flag if there are circumstances requiring the case to be submitted centrally. These follow defined criteria set by the municipality, ensuring fair and precise routing from the start.
Secure anonymous login & anonymous dialog
Whistleblowers who opt for anonymous dialogue can still access their case using a case number and a self-chosen password. This login allows them to submit follow-up information, receive updates, and engage in secure communication without ever revealing their identity.
The system facilitates secure, two-way communication between whistleblowers and case handlers, a key feature requested. Anonymous users can receive questions, submit clarifications, or provide additional information throughout the process.
Additionally, users can opt in to receive email notifications on updates to their case by submitting their email. This information is only held by the system to send out notifications and is only accessible for the automation.
Tailored routing and inter-connectivity
All agencies now use the same centralized system. This enables a standardized, interconnected and uniform approach. If cases are sent to the central channel and they deem the case should be handled locally, they can assign the case to the appropriate agency with a custom action in the case handling system.
Vice-versa, if an agency receives a report that they deem should be handled by the central whistleblowing channel, they can send the case directly for processing.
Unified case handling portal with standardized roles
Making use of our Role Based Access control in Compose Case management, separate agencies will only see their own cases, and the case handlers will only see cases assigned to them personally. Ensuring confidentiality and safe data handling throughout.
Furthermore, each user role has different case handling actions inside the system; custom built workflows seamlessly built into the platform, at a single click of a button. With separate access to data and individual actions per role, Oslo municipality can govern its users in the system with ease.
Administrator
Configure access roles (e.g., who can see/do what)
Configure Users & Assign Roles to individuals who work with the Whistleblowing
Case Allocator
View all cases submitted to their division.
View & Handle their assigned cases
Assign cases to one of their case handler
Assign to Division reassign cases to local divisions
Escalate the case to the central channel
Case Handler
View & Handle their assigned cases
Update the case (add information)
Forward to central coordinator
Dialog, start or continue if enabled by reporter
Assign to another handler (within same division)
Connect Cases to link related cases to each other.
Live & automated archiving
Every action taken within a case is automatically and instantly reflected in Oslo Municipality’s archive system. The platform supports live integration with fifty-two different archival setups, keeping documentation up to date at every stage.
When a case reaches closure, the system generates a report summarizing all relevant activity, decisions, and outcomes. This document is automatically archived, ensuring compliance and traceability without requiring manual input.
Case Export and Reports
The system includes built-in reporting functionality that offers anonymized insights into trends, resolution times, and case types. What previously was a manual and time-consuming process collecting data from all agencies, can now be completed in just a few clicks, giving the municipality a faster and more structured overview.
Faster handling times, and improved routing.
The new system delivers several key improvements over the old implementation.
With a standard platform for all agencies, cases are handled in a consistent way regardless of where it’s reported.
It enables two-way anonymous dialog, a needed improvement to the old implementation, ensuring that even anonymous reporters can be in dialog with the case handler.
It ensures that cases are first handled at the agency they originate, alleviating pressure for the central whistleblowing case handlers, who used to receive 80% of all cases.
It speeds up the reporting period by orders of magnitude, cutting a long manual collection process by being able to collect and export data with just a few clicks.
It is integrated directly to each agency’s archive system, ensuring correct preservation, updates in real time and reducing the administrative load.
The new system is not only well organized and makes for more structured handling across all agencies, but most importantly, ensures that everyone who lives and works in Oslo Municipality can raise concerns safely, fairly, and with trust.
More local handling,
less cases for the central office
The new system ensures most cases are assigned to the correct divisions from submission.
Consistent handling across 45 divisions
With a standardized process and a shared system cases are handled uniformly across all divisions.
Anonymous two way dialog supported
This ensures that anyone can be contacted for more information should it be necessary and they are willing.
Faster data collection for reports
No more manual statistics collection, single click exported through a custom, secure reporting user role – saving an estimated two months.
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