Having a trustworthy whistleblowing process in place has become increasingly important as more and more high profile whistleblowers come to prominence in the media. Oxfam is the most recent well known organisation to become enveloped in a scandal and a whistleblower who identified the issue has alleged that the problems could have been addressed some time ago.
The UK Corporate Governance Code, updated in April 2016, states that is the duty of the Audit Committee to ‘review arrangements by which staff of the company may, in confidence, raise concerns about possible improprieties in matters of financial reporting or other matters’. On 7 February, the Corporate Governance Community held its first webinar of 2018 on the subject of whistleblowing and fraud. Our speakers were Ian Foxley, a whistleblower, who recently appeared on the BBC programme House of Saud and Dino Bossi from Addveritas. We opened the webinar asking:
Do you have confidence in your organisation’s whistleblowing system?
Responses were:
- Yes – 54.2 %
- No – 29.2 %
- Not Sure – 16.6%
The responses show that we have some way to go to provide a trustworthy whistleblowing system that will encourage people to raise any issues and allow organisations to address them.
Following the webinar presentations, there were a large number of questions for our speakers. Both favoured an internal ‘Speak Up’ mechanism to encourage staff to raise their concerns internally and to allow the organisation to address them. External disclosures will cost the organisation more time and resource to either defend its activities or to address the issue.
Dino Bossi used the word ‘zeitgeist’ to describe the current mood around the issue of whistleblowing. His view was that individuals who are unfairly treated have an ability to make their voices heard due to the availability of technology and social media. A ‘Speak Up’ culture in organisations is helpful in identifying any potential problem. It also avoids using the term ‘whistleblower’ which has negative associations. Foxley and Bossi advocated rewarding whistleblowers through positive recognition and/or a cash bonus to encourage others to take this brave step. Other topics covered were the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA), the use of compromise agreements and dealing with vexatious employees.
