AB

40 Insight | Whistleblowing
How to speak up
The ability to speak up matters now more than ever, explains Dr Wim Vandekerckhove,
lead researcher of a recent ACCA/ESRC report on whistleblowing
If you have a concern at work, perhaps a suspicion of
malpractice among your colleagues, do you know where,
and to whom, to turn? If you want to blow the whistle,
can you speak up?
Taking that initial step can feel like a giant leap into the
unknown. Will you be listened to? Will you see concrete action?
Perhaps most importantly, can you trust the person you turn to?
The mere fact that you have to ask yourself these questions
shows that something is wrong – if you don’t know where to turn,
what action will be taken and whether you can trust the system,
then you won’t speak up. It is as simple as that, and whatever
concerns and suspicions you have will remain unspoken. And
such inactivity could prove disastrous for your organisation.
The ability to speak up matters now more than ever. Hardly a
week goes by without news of corporate and political misdeeds
hitting the headlines, often through the deliberate leak of
previously secret documents. The perpetrators of these leaks are
often referred to as whistleblowers. The recent leak of millions of
documents that revealed detailed financial and legal information
of more than 200,000 offshore clients of Panamanian law firm
Mossack Fonseca was just the latest in a string of such leaks.
Other cases include the so-called LuxLeaks, currently the
subject of legal proceedings in Luxembourg, which saw the leak of
thousands of PwC documents exposing how many multinational
corporations structured themselves to drastically reduce their tax
bills. And then there was, of course, the Snowden affair, when ex-
CIA operative Edward Snowden released, via WikiLeaks, details of
government-backed mass surveillance programmes.
Exposing malpractice
These instances, and many more, have
highlighted the important role of the
whistleblower in exposing corruption
and malpractice. But they have also
served to show just how difficult it is to
expose such issues. Snowden is now
living in Russia, having claimed political
asylum in 2013. Antoine Deltour is
currently on trial in Luxembourg over
his role in the PwC documents leak.
The identity of John Doe, the person
behind the Panama papers leak,
remains a mystery.
These cases are the ones that have
grabbed the media’s attention. Others
may have only made internal auditors
Ultimately, an
organisation will
be judged by
how it responds
to issues raised.
Trust is the key to
effective and safe
whistleblowing
sit up and listen, or perhaps made it to the boardroom. But many
more will perhaps remain unspoken, which is why ACCA and the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recently teamed
up to discover how different organisations create an environment
in which individuals are able to voice their concerns. The findings
are instructive, for directors, managers and employees.
Channelling concerns
We looked at a variety of organisations – a UK healthcare
organisation, a multinational bank, a multinational engineering
company and a central government body in South East Asia.
Each body has developed speak-up arrangements in response to
differing pressures. One had endured a scandal and recognised
that management did not act quickly enough after employees
had raised concerns. Another recently reviewed its speakup
arrangements in response to changes in whistleblowing
regulations. The third developed its whistleblowing
arrangements following bribery scandals in the mid-2000s,
devising procedures and protocols for the systematic processing
and follow-up of employee concerns. The fourth was subject
to anti-corruption laws but needed to develop whistleblower
protection to mitigate workplace retaliation.
Each organisation is now able to provide a variety of channels
through which employees can raise their concerns. All of them see
direct and verbal voicing of concerns as the ideal arrangement,
but even so, they also acknowledge that this might not always be,
or at least be seen to be, the most effective route.
Broadly speaking, speak-up channels can be either internal or
external. Our study reveals similarities
among the organisations with regards
to their internal channels, which include
question channels, internal hotlines
and key internal personnel such as the
CEO, HR director and finance director.
But there are considerable
differences between the external
channels used by the organisations.
These include hotlines operated by
external providers, online chatrooms,
an external ombudsperson and external
independent advice lines. These can
enable messages to be relayed back
to the organisation anonymously as
directed by the individual.
Both internal and external channels
can make use of digital technology
Accounting and Business 07/2016