Whistleblowing is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whistleblowers can use a variety of internal or external channels to communicate information or allegations. Over 83% of whistleblowers report internally to a supervisor, human resources, compliance, or a neutral third party within the company, hoping that the company will address and correct the issues. A whistleblower can also bring allegations to light by communicating with external entities, such as the media, government, or law enforcement. Some countries legislate as to what constitutes a protected disclosure, and the permissible methods of presenting a disclosure. Whistleblowing can occur in the private sector or the public sector.
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain.
Paul van Buitenen is a retired Dutch politician of the Europe Transparent Party who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.
Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto is a Washington, D.C.-based international whistleblower rights law firm specializing in anti-corruption and whistleblower law, representing whistleblowers who seek rewards, or who are facing employer retaliation, for reporting violations of the False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, Sarbanes-Oxley Acts, Commodity and Security Exchange Acts and the IRS Whistleblower law.
The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(8)-(9), Pub.L. 101-12 as amended, is a United States federal law that protects federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report the possible existence of an activity constituting a violation of law, rules, or regulations, or mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuse of authority or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. A federal agency violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities take retaliatory personnel action against any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information by that employee or applicant.
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization in the United States. It was founded in 1977.
The Whistle blower Week is the name given to a series of events in Washington, D.C. meant to raise awareness about whistle blowing. There were two whistle blower weeks which took place in Washington in two different years.
The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax exempt, educational and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by the lawyers Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP. As of June 2021, Siri Nelson is the executive director. Since its founding, the center has worked on whistleblower cases relating to environmental protection, nuclear safety, government and corporate accountability, and wildlife crime.
Ombudsmen in Australia are independent agencies who assist when a dispute arises between individuals and industry bodies or government agencies. Government ombudsman services are free to the public, like many other ombudsman and dispute resolution services, and are a means of resolving disputes outside of the court systems. Australia has an ombudsman assigned for each state; as well as an ombudsman for the Commonwealth of Australia. As laws differ between states just one process, or policy, cannot be used across the Commonwealth. All government bodies are within the jurisdiction of the ombudsman.
Thad McIntosh Guyer is an American civil rights and whistleblower lawyer, lecturer and advisor with an international law practice based in Oregon. He is known for defending whistleblowers in retaliation cases at large institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, International Labour Organization and African Development Bank.
Suelette Dreyfus is an Australian technology researcher, journalist, and academic. She is a lecturer in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, as well as the principal researcher on the impact of digital technologies on whistleblowing as a form of freedom of expression. Her research includes information systems, digital security, privacy, and the impact of technology on whistleblowing, health informatics and e-education.
Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of India which provides a mechanism to investigate alleged corruption and misuse of power by public servants and also protect anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing in government bodies, projects and offices. The wrongdoing might be in the form of fraud, corruption or mismanagement. The Act will also ensure punishment for false or frivolous complaints.
Corruption Watch is a South African anti-corruption non-profit organisation that sets out to monitor and expose acts of corruption that involve public resources and donated charitable resources in South Africa. The various focus areas in which the organisation monitors and exposes corruption include corruption in the education sector, police corruption, leadership appointments, corruption in the mining applications processes and its effects of communities, corruption in land ownership and tenure, beneficial ownership transparency, and public procurement. Whistle-blowers are an essential source for the organisation as their whole operational mode is built upon reports received from whistle-blowers.
Tom Devine is an American lawyer, investigator, lobbyist, teacher, and advocate for whistleblower rights. He is currently the legal director at the non-profit Government Accountability Project, in Washington, D.C., where he has worked since 1979. He has assisted more than 7,000 whistleblowers, testified in Congress over 50 times, and has been a leader on the front lines to draft, enact, help to enact, or defend 34 whistleblower laws in the United States and abroad, including nearly all federal laws since 1978 and international rights ranging from former Soviet Bloc nations such as Kosovo, Serbia and Ukraine to the United Nations, World Bank, European Union, and Organization of American States. He is also an adjunct professor at the District of Columbia School of Law, where he teaches classes on and supervises clinical programs in whistleblower protection.
Corruption can take many forms, and can distort how public policy is made or implemented. This article discusses the responsibilities of the various agencies involved in combating corruption in Australia. Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2005. While Australia is a wealthy democracy, over the decade since 2012, Australia's ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International has slipped from 7th place in 2012 to 14th in 2023, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. Additionally, there is a public perception that corruption in Australia is increasing. All states have broad-based anti-corruption agencies, and a national anti-corruption commission has been operational since July 2023.
Jordan Andolini Thomas is an American attorney, writer, speaker and media commentator. He is a partner and Chair of the firm SEC Whistleblower Advocates PLLC, where he represents whistleblowers reporting violations of the federal securities laws to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Protect formerly Public Concern at Work (PCaW) is a whistleblowing charity operating in the United Kingdom. Established in 1993, Protect advises individuals with whistleblowing concerns at work, supports organisations with their whistleblowing arrangements and informs public policy and seeks legislative change.
Eileen Chubb is a former care assistant in the UK who became a whistleblower and then a campaigner. She has shown a particular interest in the care home sector. She has led a campaign for new legislation named Edna's Law to replace the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) to improve legal protection for whistleblowers in the United Kingdom and for an inquiry into historic whistleblowing cases. She and other whistleblowers claim that PIDA has failed. Chubb has frequently stated her opposition to the proposed Office for the Whistleblower which has been recommended by Baroness Kramer and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Whistleblowing.
Whistleblower protection in Australia is offered for certain disclosures under a patchwork of laws at both federal and state level. Eligibility for protection depends on the requirements of the applicable law and the subject matter of the disclosure. Not all disclosures are protected by law in Australia. At federal level, whistleblowers face potential imprisonment for making disclosures about certain subjects, including national security and immigration matters.
Gavin Hall MacFadyen was an American investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was the director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) at Goldsmiths, University of London; Co-Founder with Eileen Chubb of the UK whistleblower support group, The Whistler; and a Trustee of the Courage Foundation. He was acknowledged as a ″beloved director of WikiLeaks″ shortly after his death in 2016.
