In confidence – whistleblower management

Most frauds are discovered after a tip-off – the whistle is blown. If employers want to hear it first, they would be advised to think hard about outsourcing to a reputable third party reporting service, says Stephen Norton of Safecall.

Stephen Norton (stephen.norton@lawdeb.co.uk) is Director of Marketing at Law Debenture and Safecall – www.lawdeb.co.uk, www.safecall.co.uk .

Whistleblowing features more and more frequently in the news. However, this is not just the occasional reporting in the media about an aggrieved person bringing down a corporate monolith in a rash of sensational, if quickly forgotten, headlines. Indeed, whilst such cases often refer to the victim as a ‘whistleblower’, the one thing that has usually not happened is that someone has blown the whistle prior to instituting legal proceedings against the employer. Rather, whistleblowing has become far more of a key issue in business life to the point where it is now acknowledged as an important safeguard in the Combined Code on Corporate Governance, and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) takes the view that establishing whistleblowing arrangements represents both enlightened self interest for firms, and is in the best interests of consumers and shareholders. It is no longer acceptable for an employer to tolerate a situation, or allow a business culture to develop, in which employees either know something is wrong and do nothing about it, or raise those concerns only to see them ignored or channelled to the wrong people.