Thursday, 4 August 2011

About whistle-blower

       I think whistleblower (whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities (misconduct) occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company. The alleged misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).
One of the first laws that protected whistleblowers was the 1863 United States False Claims Act (revised in 1986), which tried to combat fraud by suppliers of the United States government during the Civil War. The act encourages whistleblowers by promising them a percentage of the money recovered or damages won by the government and protects them from wrongful dismissal.
Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal, sometimes at the hands of the organization or group which they have accused, sometimes from related organizations, and sometimes under law.

UK

In the United Kingdom, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 provides a framework of legal protection for individuals who disclose information so as to expose malpractice and matters of similar concern. In the vernacular, it protects whistleblowers from victimization and dismissal.


Canada

Canadian protection for whistleblowers is notoriously poor by English-speaking countries' standards. Until recently there was no formal protection for those who spoke up from a position of knowledge inside government, with even senior civil servants (Shiv Chopra being one notable case) fired or constructively dismissed for speaking up about internal abuses.
In the private sector, the situation was even worse as Canada retained the unreformed common law of libel without the exceptions for public issues or public interest that were added in all other English-speaking countries. This made political libel cases unfortunately common, with one infamous case even filed by the Prime Minister himself versus Official Opposition for alleging that the Prime Minister, when in Opposition, had bribed MP Chuck Cadman.
Historically, many Canadian private sector business scandals had come to light only through the intervention of the US SEC or other regulators (Garth DrabinskyConrad BlackSteven Bingham being three notable examples), due in part to the lack of whistleblower protections, plaintiff-friendly libel laws and a lack of investigative journalism due to these.


Canadian government

Canada's parliament has instituted the Public Sector Integrity Office (Canada), a parliamentary office for the protection for whistleblowers who speak up against abuses in government. However, that office was itself cast into some doubt when the first Integrity Commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, was heavily criticized in the auditor general's report in December 2010. Cabinet ministerStockwell Day defended the office but independent groups urged the re-opening of already closed files.


India

As of 2009 the government of India has introduced the whistle blower law "Right to Information Act." To maintain and increase the stability in law, the government India is on the path to introduce an ombudsman law which was demanded by an civil society against corruption. Anna Hazare, a civilian, with his committee has demanded the ombudsman law called as "Jan Lokpal bill." A committee of 10 persons has been sectioned from the government who will lead this committee.

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