A tick-box approach to whistleblowing policies within an organisation will not motivate employees to speak out, according to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). It warns that private and public entities need to ensure there is a cultural commitment to whistleblowing.
“For managers to simply put policies in place within an organisation won’t result in an effective whistleblowing environment. This cannot be a tick-box exercise,” said Gillian Fawcett, ACCA’s head of public sector.
“There are many benefits to a more embedded disclosure regime, including a more open and transparent organisation and in tackling fraud and corruption, but an organisation’s cultural commitment to the value of whistleblowing is at the heart of addressing the question of motivating prospective whistleblowers,” she added.
The Association says that lessons can be learnt from the introduction of other legislation, such as the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which required public bodies to comply with a positive race equality duty, requiring them to go beyond the policies and put arrangements in place to raise staff awareness through training programmes and on-going monitoring and support.
This approach was critical for raising staff awareness about their responsibilities under the Act and what it meant for their work. It also helped to instil confidence in the process.
However, ACCA warns against using financial or other incentives for potential whistleblowers.
According to John Davies, ACCA’s head of technical, financial or other rewards for whistleblowers are not consistent with the culture and philosophy of UK in the context of ‘public interest’ disclosure.
“The prospect of financial reward should not, as a rule, influence a decision as to whether or not to disclose relevant information,” he said. “The danger, as we see it, is that a regime which offered substantial financial pay-outs to whistleblowers as an encouragement to the reporting of information would undermine the integrity of the concept of whistleblowing, and make it more difficult to achieve the buy-in of management and governance bodies.”
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