This is an interesting article written by James Thomson, the editor of SmartCompany.com.au, who draws upon some interesting observations and commentary from Melbourne work place lawyer Andrew Douglas.

Mr Douglas comments “We are inclined to deal with problems when they percolate to the surface. What we miss is that performance management is a daily task.” Your-Call has been particularly successful in this area with its behaviour monitoring tool which operates 24/7 in the background as the regulator of acceptable conduct in accordance with the company or organisations code of conduct/ethics polices.

The independance, security and anonymnity provided by Your-Call’s processes helps meet the objective Mr Douglas sees as imperative, namely “companies need to work hard to have a culture where particularly junior staff feel safe enough to actually make a complaint, regardless of the perpetrator’s seniority.”

Increasing the pace of small initiatives to integrate governance, risk and compliance is critical in helping Boards with their capacity to gather and manage real-time data on strategic risks – including compliance risks that can impact upon their legal and/or community license to operate, according to Alf Estaban, general manager of SAI Global.

Visibility of these strategic risks is essential for Boards to undertake their core functions, said Estaban, who noted that regular discussions about the adequacy and effectiveness of programs, coupled with an active review of compliance reporting, are key tools in ensuring Boards are confident in managing compliance risks.

He added that Boards also need to actively promote a culture of ethics and compliance through clear policies and other activities which inform staff about desired behaviours.

“Importantly, Boards should promote a culture of openness and provide access to independent whistleblowing services to reinforce that [they are] serious about wanting to know and address serious breaches or incidents,” said Estaban.

Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor The Australian

The federal government has accelerated its push for a more open system of government by introducing the first federal law protecting public servants who reveal maladministration.

It plans to reverse decades of government secrecy by protecting public servants who reveal serious wrongdoing to the media.

The new scheme is intended to encourage whistleblowers in the federal public service by giving them the nation’s most extensive system of legal protection and support.

Cabinet secretary Joe Ludwig, who unveiled the scheme in parliament yesterday, was praised last night by whistleblowers and legal academics for delivering a scheme that goes beyond the more limited schemes in force in the states. “It is close to world’s best practice,” said legal academic A.J. Brown.

“It will change the culture of government,” said Peter Bennett, president of Whistleblowers Australia.

The scheme will be contained in a planned public interest disclosure act that will fulfil Labor’s promise to address the problems in the legal system highlighted by the case of convicted whistleblower Allan Kessing.

A recent Drake International survey of over 800 Australia-wide employees has revealed bullying is still rife in Australian workplaces . More than 50% of survey respondents had witnessed bullying behaviour and over 25% had been a target of bullying themselves. Poor management of the issue by Organisations was also revealed as only 30% of bullying targets and less than 50% of witnesses were satisfied with their organisations handling of the situation. More than 50% also noted the bullying behaviour had been going on for over 6 months.

The document provides recommendations for the scope, disclosure procedures, protection, enforcement, and legislative structure of whistleblower policy. The group agreed on 27 guiding principles for developing whistleblower legislation.

Accompanying the release of the draft principles is an analysis of the whistleblower legislation in ten European countries.

Ben Tuffnell, from the Commission, says some people go to extraordinary lengths to try to rip-off the system. “Recently we’ve seen people who’ve been involved in staging crashes and seeking motor injury insurance that way,” he said.

“People often exaggerate their injuries or they just make false claims so there’s many ways people do try and rort the system. The bottom line is you will get caught.”

Mr Tuffnell says the savings ultimately benefit other motorists. “We estimate we’ve saved about $25 million in the past five years and that’s probably saved people about $10 per registration off their motor vehicle, so there are benefits in there for people if you do report fraud, if you do hear of someone rorting the system,” he said.

“A decade ago, corporate whistleblowing was almost unheard of in Japan. A person’s place of employment was part of his identity, and unflinching company loyalty was the highest of virtues. But the unquestioningly obedient salary earner is becoming a relic, the result of a broader transformation of Japan and the global economy.”

“Now, lawyers and economists say Japanese workers are beginning to speak out — despite a still-potent risk of ostracism because of the widely held view that such disclosure constitutes betrayal. ”

.. recent study of nearly 200,000 whistleblowing reports of alleged infractions, almost two-thirds of the complaints were made via hotlines without first alerting anyone in management, and few prove to be false alarms,”

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Reproduced with permission from Daily Tax Report, No. 219, pp. J-1 – J-8 (Nov. 15, 2004). Copyright 2004 by The Bureau of National Affairs,Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com