Corruption Prevention: Evaluating Whistleblower Protection Laws

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This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of whistleblower protection within the framework of corruption prevention. It begins by defining whistleblowing, differentiating between internal and external types, and emphasizing the significance of protecting whistleblowers as per the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The essay critically evaluates what comprehensive and robust protection means in practice, highlighting the importance of whistleblower protection laws, confidentiality, and protection against retaliatory actions. It explores corporate whistleblower policies, international instruments, and the need for organizational commitment to support whistleblowers. The essay also examines the role of various international conventions and guidelines, and discusses the practical aspects of establishing effective whistleblower schemes. Furthermore, it addresses the legal and ethical considerations surrounding whistleblower protection, emphasizing the need for clear legislation, awareness, and efficient protection mechanisms. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of protecting whistleblowers to foster trust and integrity, especially in a globalized economy, and promoting a multi-agency and multi-national response to corruption. The document also discusses the elements for protected disclosures and individuals, including reliable reporting channels, protection from retaliation, and mechanisms for reform.
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Running head: CORRUPTION PREVENTION
Corruption Prevention
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note
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1CORRUPTION PREVENTION
Critical evaluation of what does comprehensive and robust protection means in
reality for whistleblowers:
A whistleblower is a person coming forward and sharing knowledge on the wrongdoings that
are thought to be happening at the overall business and over any particular sector of the organization.
Here the supplier, contractor and employee aware of illegal tasks. Two types are there. The first one
is the internal whistleblowing indicating that they report any misconduct of others in any business.
The next one is the external type of whistleblowing. The whistleblowers can be government agency
employees of any organization that discloses data to the public or any higher authority regarding
wrongdoing in the form of crouton, fraud and many more. The following study focusses on
evaluating the comprehensive and robust protection of them in practice.
Identifying the significance of whistleblower protection laws, as per the point 7 of G20 Anti-
Corruption Action Plan, that has been called on G20 nations has been guided by the principle to
protect from retaliatory and discriminatory actions that the whistleblowers report in goof faith that
are the suspected activities of corruption. The Corporate Whistleblower policy and process present
within business extends or permits the rights of employees or workers to raise complains or voices
for unethical or illegal activities, harmful or immoral behavior or misconduct. This might also
involve the loss of intellectual properties like patent and brand or the sharing of business information
confidential and private. The protection of whistleblowers is needed to develop Union Law’s
enforcement over the procurement of the public. This is required to prevent and find the procurement
regarding corruption and fraud under the context of Union budget implementation. It is also required
to tackle the enforcement of the rule that are insufficient on procurement or public. This is through
national contracting authorities and the entities of contracting related to task execution. Supply of
products and service provisions (Eur-lex.europa.eu 2020). The places where the whistleblowing is
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successful immediately safe and effective that is due to the fact whistleblowers have credibility and
legitimacy. However, as the whistleblowers are unsuccessful in the initial attempt and turn to be
proacted procedure, they seem to have small avail to seek to implement legitimacy under the
business (Vandekerckhove and Phillips 2017). The confidentiality is the minimum level of
requirement aiming to secure the whistleblowers. Ensuring this must also help to decrease the
anonymous disclosure incidentally.
The protection laws of whistleblowers must deliver the comprehensive security against
various retaliatory and discriminatory actions of personnel. Here, for instance the French Law
implemented on Fight Against Corruption has been set out the wide employment security for then.
This involves the indirect and direct disciplinary activities. This also includes the discrimination or
dismissal specially respect to reclassification, classification, training and remuneration, qualification,
professional promotion, assignment, contract or transfer renewal and exclusion from access and
recruitment to training and internships. Again in deploying the whistleblower protection legislation,
various nations must be considering the waiving those criminal liabilities for secured disclosures and
just affording the protection as the disclosure is done with the channel prescribed. For instance, at
United States, as any purported whistleblower can make disclosure particularly ordered by Executive
order or law, that is to be kept hidden for national defense and foreign affair conducts. This
disclosure of been prohibited by the law and never get afforded through the whistleblower protection
till that is made to the Inspect General of the agency office of the special council. Again, the
maximum of whistleblower laws has been providing protection of whistleblower’s identity. This is
ben been kept to be confidential till the whistleblower delivers the consent of disclosing that to the
law of Untied States. Here, for instance disclosure of identity of whistleblower despite any consent
till Office of Special Counsel, find that disclosure of distinct identity is needed due to imminent
challenge towards public health and imminent violation or safety of criminal laws. The protection
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laws of whistleblower lessen burden of proof as the employer should be proving that conduct is done
against staff has been unrelated to the whistleblowing. It is in reaction to complexities that staff
might witness to prove that retaliation is the outcome of disclosure. This is particularly as many type
of reprisal are difficult and subtle to be established. For instance, this is with respect of PDA of
South Africa stating that dismissal seen in breach of Act has been deemed to be unfair and automatic
dismissal (OCDE 2011).
In any case, protection provided by confidentiality is never absolute. The recipient of the
disclosure must make that clear to whistleblowers. Before disclosing through proper channels,
whistleblowers should have mentioned the concerns to his colleagues. For instance, there can be
risks that disclosure has been traced back to the whistleblower (Index 2017). Under this context, the
organizational commitment comprehends the extent till the business as an entity and deal with the
whistleblowing. Having a strong commitment includes procedures and policies signifying formal
acceptance and protection of them. Next, there is leadership assuring that no mismatch is there
between commitments outlined by senior management. Commonly, the line managers are the first
point to receive the reports and reporters require to trust the fact that the processes are sufficient
(Roberts, Olsen and Brown 2009).
The whistleblowing procedure and policy are to be laid down such that it provides a
provision to any one part of the system or business. This is to blow the whistle against anything and
to be done to follow the proper procedure and process provided by Corporate Policy. Various
behaviors of good practice include the ways they operate in practice and promotion at staff-wide of
arrangements by senior executive minimum yearly. Providing feedback to the staff on the raised
problems and survey questions of staff for checking the awareness. Further, the brief managers must
be promoting arrangements and gaining concerns (Nao.org.uk 2020). The various international
instruments include the “Council of Europe Civil Law Convention against Corruption” and
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“Criminal Law Convention against Corruption” and “Recommendation on the Protection of
Whistleblowers.” OAS or “Organization of American States Inter-American Convention”, “African
Union Convention on Combating and Preventing CorruptionProtocol” that was against the
corruption of the Southern Africa Development Community. Then, there is OECD or “Organisation
of Economic Co-operation and Development Anti-BriberyConvention”. Few of them have been seen
to be accompanied through suitable materials of guidance. Here, for instance, the laws of the OAS
model on freedom of expression present against corruption and seen to be facilitating protecting and
reporting the witnesses and whistleblowers. These are the OECD investigation of the protection
frameworks of Whistleblower or Council of Europe Recommendation (Unodc.org 2020).
Having corporate whistleblowers are essential from a different perspective. This gives rise to
trust and integrity. Nonetheless, this is the foremost liability of the top management to deliver
security and safety to whistleblowers. Under a globalized and networked economy, there are various
domestic matters rousingly more likely to have a global effect. For instance, the scandal of 2013
horsemeat shows the instance to include various jurisdictions needing a multi-agency and multi-
national response.
Further, the concerns can upstream and people must never support whistleblowers earlier in
that process through assuring that here the concern is dealt with and proper raising that must be
given with essential protection and support from outset prior any retaliatory action or detrimental
treatment take place (Whistleblowing and Savage 2020). The protection must never be solely lost as
per the individual making report or disclosure. The whistleblowers must be entitled to the increment
in suitable administrative or criminal proceedings. The judicial, institutional and normative
frameworks involve the suitable and collective type of labor agreements. This must be developed
and designed for facilitating reports of public interest and the disclosures through implementing
rules for protecting the interests and rights of them (Scaturro 2018).
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Insofar as possible, confidentiality is to be maintained. Nonetheless, the identity could be
disclosed for conducting a detailed investigation and complying with that law and deliver the
accused people with legal rights of their defense. Here, the business might never retaliate against
whistleblowers. Some of the guiding principles and best practices for the legislation to protect the
whistleblowers are discussed hereafter. The practical institutional framework and clear legislation
are to be suitable places for protection from any sort of disciplinary and discriminatory action staff.
They disclose on reasonable grounds ad good faith of specific suspected acts of corruption and
wrongdoing to the competent authorities. Moreover, the legislation delivers a clear understanding of
the scope of secured disclosures and people afforded the security within that law. This legislation
assures that afforded protection to the whistleblowers are comprehensive and robust. This legislation
defined the prescribed channels and procedures to facilitate the report of the suspected activities of
corruption. This also encourages the usage of easily accessible and protective channels of
whistleblowing. Further, the legislation assures that efficient mechanisms of protection are there in
place. It involves the entrusting of a particular body empowered and accountable with liability to
investigate and receive complaints of retaliation and improper evaluation and delivering a total range
of remedies. The deployment of the legislation of whistleblower protection has been supported
through raising awareness, training, communication and periodic checking of efficient o protecting
framework (Worldcat.org 2020).
The rights of whistleblowers to protect against retaliation never involve the immunity for
personal mistakes investigated and alleged. However, this is as interesting to fetch the ways the
debates related to this are rousingly attracting a wide variety of participants. This includes the
environments that never typically deal with the anti-corruption. Preassembly is the outcome of a rise
in the number of whistleblowers across the globe who are suffering from retaliation. This is with
much more attention than public and media opinions are dedicated to the phenomenon. Moreover, as
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6CORRUPTION PREVENTION
the violations of alleged human rights come from that related to the retaliatory practices that are
foreseeable to have expectations to the bodies of human rights in expressing their viewpoint
(Knowledgehub.transparency.org 2020). As per Transparency International, three primary elements
are seen for the protected disclosures and individuals. This includes the provision of reliable and
accessible channels of reporting. There must be robust protection coming from every type of
retaliation and various mechanisms for the disclosure, promoting reforms corrective legislative,
procedural and policy inadequacies and then prevent further wrongdoings. Any mechanism of
internal reporting must take different formats. The business might be making line management the
initial port-of-call of raising the concerns and then appoints the committee and specialized to be
liable to get and process reports. Besides, they must also be outsourcing to the providers delivering
the services like hotlines and helplines of the whistleblowing and advice. And deploy the
assimilation of outsourced and in-house elements (Oecd.org 2020).
Corporate misconduct has been presenting problems with the governance with current
corporations. This is never at least since they undermine the sound corporate culture and obstructing
the financial development. Here, one of the methods with which the misconducts could be exposed
is with a mechanism that is referred to be whistleblowing. Further, there must be some unlawful acts
an abusing of law that can happen at any can irrespective of size and it is public and private. This
can be taking various forms, fraud, corruption, negligence and malpractices. As they are never
addressed, that results in severe damage to public interests. The ones working for any business and
in contact with that in the task-related works commonly were the first ones to understand the
happenings. Thus they are in a privileged situation for informing those who can address the issue.
They are ones reporting or disclosing data on various wrongdoings retrieved through the work-
related context. This can be done by preventing the harms and detecting harms or threats to the
public interest that can stay secret otherwise. Here, the typical background for the whistleblowing is
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to investigate the promulgated by the business whom they employ. These are the beneficiaries of any
association where they owe a few measures of loyalty. Within the measure lies the expectation that
the staff must never jeopardize the interest of the business by revealing specific types of data to
people external to the business. Apart from that, as the embers are not satisfied with anything done
by the organization, they can make that known just to the suitable ones at the business. Here, the
thing that generated the necessity for much more neutral characterization of the ones going outside
the business is the determination that the internal mechanisms fail to deal with the failures of the
organization adequately. This is due to the interest that is jeopardized by the failures that are broader
to the business that the public has the right to understand.
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References:
Eur-lex.europa.eu 2020. EUR-Lex - 32019L1937 - EN - EUR-Lex. [online] Available at:
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019L1937> [Accessed 27
March 2020].
Index, C.P. 2017. Transparency International: The global coalition against corruption.
Berlin:«Transparency International» International Secretariat.
Knowledgehub.transparency.org 2020. [online] Available at:
<https://knowledgehub.transparency.org/assets/uploads/kproducts/Whistleblowing-Topic-
Guide.pdf> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
Nao.org.uk 2020. [online] Available at:
<https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Making-a-whistleblowing-policy-work.pdf>
[Accessed 27 March 2020].
OCDE, 2011. G20 AntiCorruption Action Plan. Protection of whistleblowers. Study on
whistleblower protection frameworks, compendium of best practices and guiding principles for
legislation.
Oecd.org 2020. [online] Available at: <http://www.oecd.org/corruption/integrity-forum/academic-
papers/Savage.pdf> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
Roberts, P., Olsen, J. and Brown, A.J., 2009. Whistling while they work. Draft Report, July.
Scaturro, R., 2018. Defining Whistleblowing.
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Unodc.org 2020. [online] Available at:
<https://www.unodc.org/documents/corruption/Publications/2015/15-
04741_Person_Guide_eBook.pdf> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
Vandekerckhove, W. and Phillips A. 2017. Whistleblowing as a protracted process. A study of UK
whistleblower journeys, Journal of Business Ethics. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3727-8
Whistleblowing, W. and Savage, A. 2020. Whistleblowers For Change : The Social And Economic
Costs And Benefits Of Leaking And Whistleblowing. [online] Issuelab.org. Available at:
<https://www.issuelab.org/resource/whistleblowers-for-change-the-social-and-economic-costs-and-
benefits-of-leaking-and-whistleblowing.html> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
Worldcat.org 2020. Protection Of Whistleblowers : Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7 Adopted By
The Committee Of Ministers Of The Council Of Europe On 30 April 2014 And Explanatory
Memorandum. (Book, 2014) [Worldcat.Org]. [online] Available at:
<https://www.worldcat.org/title/protection-of-whistleblowers-recommendation-cmrec20147-
adopted-by-the-committee-of-ministers-of-the-council-of-europe-on-30-april-2014-and-explanatory-
memorandum/oclc/896828403> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
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