Bearing in mind that a whistleblower is a person who informs on a person or organization regarded as engaging in an unlawful or immoral activity,
Fully aware that whistleblowers have fundamental rights constant with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The International Covenant on Social Economic, Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly,
Affirming that in order to receive protection under “Whistleblower” protection policies, the individuals must make the report in good intention, have reasonable brief that misconduct has occurred and must be made as soon as possible,
Emphasizing making a report or providing information that is deliberately or illusive generates misconduct and might be concluded in administrative or disciplinary,
Recognizing that the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 provides legal protection to employees making disclosures an the council expands the principles of the Act into this charter give employees, councilors, governors, partners, service users and citizens the same way to increase concerns,
Pointing out that Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Whistleblower Protection Program fortifies the whistleblower provisions, protecting employees who report misconduct and provide information in good faith on wrongdoing, preventing employers from discriminating against their employees for raising their rights under the Act,
Taking note that in 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan published a whistleblower protection policy that was improved with Government Accountability Project (GAP) and other experts in whistleblower law,
Pointing out that Article 32 and Article 33 of the UN Convention Against Corruption supported pro...
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...tside organizational walls which closes a loophole that constantly invalidate real whistleblower protection;
5) Urges countries who do not have exhaustive laws for the protection of whistleblowers to make legislations and the countries have already had laws to review their legislations by keeping in mind the following guiding principles:
a. It should be included relevant issues in different areas of law such as but not limited to:
i. Employment law, that protects employees against deposals, denying overtime or promotion, demoting and which increases the confidence of people, ii. Media law which particularly protects journalistic sources, iii. Specific anti-corruption preventions, iv. Civil immunity of the whistleblowers in respect of insult,
b. Legislations should protect everyone who, in good intention, makes use of existing internal whistle-blowing connections;
Corruption is a persistent problem that plagues the world and it knows no boundaries. Transparency International defines it as the “abuse of entrusted power for private gain” (2013). For the purposes of this thread, ‘corruption’ is defined as any individual, collective, or structural act or process that permits the use of public authority or position for private gain. This definition captures the broad and many ways individuals and institutions abuse power and the public trust. In regard to whistleblowing, much conflict stems from the context in which the whistleblower is viewed.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was drafted to encourage and protect whistleblowers from retaliation after the fraud scandal that cause the collapse of Enron in 2001. In a 2010 Senate Report found that “external auditors detected only 4.1 percent of uncovered fraud schemes, “whistleblower tips detected 54.1% of uncovered fraud schemes in public companies” and were thirteen times more effective than external audits” (Turpan, 2016). Whistleblowers serve an important service to the public and are more effective than external audits. The CFAA has been used to by employers to retaliate against employees who act as informants for agencies like Internal Revenue Service or Security Exchange Commission to expose fraud. There employees, not to their financial gain, gather information as evidence of fraud by the company. With a broad interpretation of CFAA, the employee would "exceed their authority" and was "unauthorized" to access the information, therefore allowing the company to hide their illegal
Whistle blowing is a controversial topic in the professional industry. Whistle blowing is the act of speaking out against a fellow colleague or even a friend that has done something non-ethical or illegal in the workplace. A whistleblower raises concerns about the wrongdoing inside of the workplace. Employees hesitate to become a whistleblower because of the idea of becoming a snitch on fellow employees and having a bad rep around the office. This concern was lowered in 1989 with a law called the Whistleblower Protection Act that protects federal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring at a government organization (whistleblowers.gov).
Oftentimes when a report is filed, the faculty and staff are untrained and do not know
In this climate of deteriorating government transparency, whistleblowers expose corruption to the public which may otherwise never come to light. In recent history, whistleblowers have been vital in revealing government corruption. In one of the first large scale leaks, “the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg leaked US government files known as the Pentagon Papers, whi...
The term Whistleblower means “An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. When information is classified or otherwise restricted by Congress or Executive Order, disclosures only are protected as whistleblowing if made through designated, secure channels. (What is a Whistleblower?)” The idea behind whistleblowers is that they believe trying to inform the public of illegal acts within their businesses has the potential to protect the public from wrongdoing. The following studies analyze scholar’s findings on different factors related to whistle blowing as
On November 29th, Mary Inman gave us a talk on the topic whistleblowing, which let me know more about the whistleblower activities and the whistleblower protection. According to the definition given by the website whistleblowers international, whistleblowing is someone who reveal the unethical or illegal activities within the company. The person can be current or past employee, or an outside individual who is familiar with the unethical activity. This whistleblower does not need to be U.S. citizen.
However, it may not be the best solution to be used first when dealing with unethical corporate practices. From more of a Utilitarian approach one should seek to do the greatest good. An approach that gives the company a chance to change its unethical behavior internally would follow this idea. Having the ability to change practices internally before outside intervention can have many positive effects. The company is able to make the changes, reestablish its integrity, maintain business, and retain employees. The whistleblowing option brings in outside forces that could lead to repercussions for the company which may include restitution or even being closed down. If the business is closed it effects more than just the corporate entity, all of the employees are also negatively impacted by this as well when they would lose their jobs. Sometimes however, when the company is unwilling to change its practices and do business in a more ethical manner people are left with little choice but to report to outside sources what is occurring within the business. Many see whistleblowing as law-breaking when employees are contractually obligated to
The date of reporting • The date, time and location of the incident • Personal details (name, job title etc) of the person(s)
...y. Congress has passed laws to protect whistleblowers because they protect the accountability of the government and private companies by sharing the truth of their actions. Although there have been laws to protect whistle blowers many still are receiving punishment from corporations today.
Whistleblowing is the act of a person who brings to light wrongdoings, often illegal, of another person or organization. A whistleblower will seek an external means, such as a news outlet or regulatory agency, to expose wrongdoings after trying to resolve the situation internally within the organization. Often, a whistleblower is weary of the legality of their claims and retaliation from the organization or person that their claim exposes. There are two types of conditions to whistle blow, when it is morally permissible and when it is morally obligatory. In order to explore these conditions, two case studies are presented in the following.
Whistle-blowing can be defined many different ways. For example, from page 384 in the book, whistle-blowing is the voluntary release of nonpublic information, as a moral protest, by a member or former member of an organization outside the normal channels of communication to an appropriate audience about illegal and/or immoral conduct in the organization or conduct in the organization that is opposed in some significant way to the public interest. For a simpler explanation of the term whistle-blowing, Merriam-Webster defines the term as, an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency and who is commonly vested by statute with rights and remedies for retaliation.
Although Hollate introduced a compliance program and code of conduct when it went public, the programs were put on “the back burner”. This outcome is not surprised for that the company does not pay attention to the programs. It is, therefore, important to “reinforce the values” and “employee a boundary system when actions are inconsistent with the code of conduct” for the purpose of early detection. Tyco provides a good example after its scandal, by initiating “mandatory annual compliance training for all its employees worldwide” and creating the Tyco Guide to Ethical Conduct to familiarize employees with company expectations and help them make ethical decisions. As tips is the most useful method for internal and external sources to detect frauds, the whistleblower hotline should be well communicated with encouragement on reporting any suspicious activity. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of the compliance program and code of conducts, Hollate should implement management monitoring and evaluation on a regular
The level of importance that is given to the whistleblower and whistleblowers depends on its nature, its political contexture, and media portrayal. In this scenario, the supervisor made decisions oblivious to the facts presented by his staff and scientists’ opinions. The problem relied on HNF supervisor Girton lack of consideration to address the concerns of the majority and his own subordinates. The dissatisfaction
Whistle blowing is an attempt of an employee or former employee of a company to reveal what he or she believes to be a wrongdoing in or by a company or organization. Whistle blowing tries to make others aware of practices that are considered illegal or immoral. If the wrongdoing is reported to someone in the company it is said to be internal. Internal whistle blowing tends to do less damage to the company. There is also external whistle blowing. This is where the wrongdoing is reported to the media and brought to the attention of the public. This type of whistle blowing tends to affect the company in a negative way because of bad publicity. It is said that whistle blowing is personal if the wrongdoing affects the whistle blower alone (like sexual harassment), and said to be impersonal if the wrongdoing affects other people. Many people whistle blow for two main reasons: morality and revenge.