Whistle blowing - (free content)

2004

Hope on the horizon?

OCTOBER 2004: The position of the whistleblower is not an envious one, and I am not referring here to the referee in sports matches. Despite the introduction of the so-called ‘Whistleblowers Act’, the Protected Disclosures Act, 26 of 2000 (PDA), it would still appear that the whistleblower in South Africa is not necessarily receiving the protection that he or she deserves, and that whistleblowers appear to be receiving elsewhere.

The PDA, which came into operation on 16 February 2001, sought to put mechanisms in place whereby employees may, without fear of reprisals, disclose information relating to suspected or alleged criminal or other irregular conduct by their employers1. Judging by the number and extent of proposed changes being put forward by the South African Law Reform Commission in Discussion Paper 107, the Act has not been the success it was hoped it would be. (Read more...)

When the whistle blows

AUGUST 2004: For government and corporate bosses, March 2004 erupted with warnings. As the government sponsorship scandal unfolded, it appeared the cat and mouse game between cabinet ministers and their deputies to dodge accountability was finally "game over." The scene was not much better on the corporate front. As stories of one derelict company after another inundated daily papers and nightly newscasts, the world witnessed the handcuffing of Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom, who surely lamented his failure to exercise greater due diligence and stewardship in the oversight of his company. But Ebbers was not alone, as bosses, implicated in scandal after scandal, were left reflecting on the heavy, sometimes fatal, price paid for stonewalling whistle-blowers — those conscientious employees who had attempted to sound an early alarm on institutional wrongdoing. (Read more...)

Sarbanes-Oxley and Whistle-blower Protections

JUNE 2004: One can only wonder how much damage would have been avoided if Enron employee Sherron Watkins had blown the whistle sooner.

Discussion about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has largely focused on corporate governance and accounting independence issues for publicly traded companies, and overlooked the implications for companies whose employees "blow the whistle." In fact, Sarbanes-Oxley has increased the protection provided to whistle-blowers in three major areas. (Read more...)

The evolution of whistle blowing culture in Australia

whis•tle-blow•er n. One who reveals wrongdoing within an organisation to the public or to those in positions of authority.

Australia’s attitude towards whistleblowing has changed. The old ethos of ‘don’t dob in a mate’ has been overtaken in the workplace by the increasing desire of employees’ to work in a fair and honest environment.

Employees are no longer willing to turn a blind eye to issues that affect either a company’s or employees’ wellbeing. They want to report it and they want something done about it. As a result, corporate whistleblowing is taking off. (Read more...)

2003

IN THE CORPORATE WORLD, BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON CO-WORKERS CAN BE RISKY BUSINESS BUT NEW LEGISLATION IS ABOUT TO CHANGE ALL THAT

OCTOBER 2003: It can be the honest employee's worst nightmare.  No one is comfortable reporting on a colleague and everybody is terrified of speaking against his or her boss. But this was the situation Barry Collins faced a few months ago. A chartered accountant at the head office of major Canadian manufacturer East/West Ltd., Collins was reviewing the preliminary 2001 financial results for the company's western division when he noticed some unusual transactions booked right at the end of the fiscal year. One of these transactions involved a large sale to a particular customer whom Collins remembered from prior years because doubts had been raised over the customer's credit worthiness. In fact, East/West had, as a result, placed this dubious purchaser on a cash-on-delivery basis. (Read more...)

2002

Blowing the whistle

APRIL 2002: Without dwelling on Enron, one cannot help but notice that two of the senior executives implicated in that situation were in the risk department. The obvious question: Just what risks were they managing?

You are doing a routine review of your company's contracts and you notice something unusual: the normal approval process has been eliminated, the vendor is related to a top executive and the cost is double what it should be. When you take it up with someone in the general counsel's office, he explains the situation as being an example of how senior executives "take care of each other." You exclaim, "We can't do that!" At this, he raises his eyebrows and tells you he does not want to be the one to blow the whistle. (Read more...)

Whistle-Blowing

APRIL 2000: Just imagining the destructive power of a publicly revealed whistleblowing complaint can strike fear in the hearts and minds of managers. Proactive strategies can help redirect employee complaints in positive directions and defuse potential fires.

A RECENT SURVEY OF MORE THAN 125 CHIEF INTERNAL auditors by professors at the University of Massachusetts and Bentley College concluded that 76 percent of employee whistleblowing complaints were found to be true. The high potential for a whistleblowing case worries top managers across the world--and for good reason. Once a whistleblower has gone public, the media circus and multimillion-dollar lawsuits can leave a stain of embarrassment on a company that might never be washed clean. (Read more...)