Temat: Whistleblowing newsletter: 05 September, 2014

Whistleblowing newsletter: 05 September, 2014

Plebgate: Met obtained phone records of Sun political editor without consent
Police investigating the Plebgate saga obtained the telephone records of the Sun's political editor without his consent, despite laws which entitle journalists to keep their sources confidential.
The Metropolitan police report into the scandal reveals that the force arrested an officer on suspicion of leaking information to the Sun after an analysis of Tom Newton Dunn’s phone records. The Met also obtained call records to the Sun newsdesk to try to identify a second potential source to the Plebgate scandal. The National Union of Journalists described the police move as an 'outrageous abuse' of their position that needs 'urgent addressing.'
The Guardian, 2 September 2014

Open Democracy Advice Centre – Empowering our Whistleblowers
The Open Democracy Advice Centre has published a comprehensive review of whistleblowing in
South Africa. The review demonstrates that over the last three years, since ODAC’s last study,
South Africa has become “increasingly hostile to whistleblowing activities”.
Whistleblowers in South Africa are protected under the Protected Disclosure Act, which was modelled on UK legislation. The review finds that there a number of gaps in the law and that whistleblowers are not being sufficiently supported by employers, state agencies or by wider society.

India wakes up to whistleblowing
EY has reported an increase in whistleblowing in India in the first half of 2014 compared to 2013. This comes shortly after the Whistleblowers Protection Act received the President’s assent in May.
Despite these steps in the right direction, EY notes that companies have been slow to accept the significance of having a reliable whistleblowing framework. The study pointed to a “tick-box” approach, as only 22% of companies surveyed implemented a framework because they had a pressing need for it.

$300,000 Reward for U.S. whistleblower
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has awarded $300,000 to a whistleblower who helped uncover company wrongdoing. The whistleblower, who worked in audit and compliance, took their concerns to the SEC after the company failed to respond to concerns raised internally.
According to the SEC press release:
'The SEC’s whistleblower program rewards high-quality, original information that results in an SEC enforcement action with sanctions exceeding $1 million. Whistleblower awards can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected in a case.'
http://sec.gov, 29 August 2014

Lancashire in 2012.
Despite the CQC receiving information from four whistle blowers between December 2011 and March 2012, no action was taken by the regulatory body and the record of information was left incomplete.
Following the first two whistleblower referrals there was no record of conversations between the CQC and Lancashire County Council and a Management Review Meeting did not take place to discuss escalating concerns and breaches the home had made, which included creating a fake registration certificate.
carehome.co.uk, 2 September 2014