Whistleblowing – a piece of the action
This article, in the Financial Times, reminds us of the very pragmatic way to try to address fraud in government. As has been mentioned previously, whistleblowing is very important in trying to find out about fraud, bribery and other bad behaviors in government. Usually, the whistleblower has a harder time and sometimes, the individual finds that they are unemployed and are truly worse off. What some countries have done to incentivize whistleblowers is to provide them with a share of the amount retrieved, “[u]sing cash prizes to fight corruption is a long-standing tactic in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Internal Revenue Service doled out a combined $379mn last year. The Department of Justice will soon launch its own programme. Informants typically get up to 30 per cent of what’s recovered; the SEC rewards tips based on “independent analysis” — short seller reports, say — as well as non-public information.” What this means is that true whistleblowers can feel more confident about sharing information.
Why is this a good idea? This has been a very positive way to be able to go after bad actors, in government, and the stakes are quite high as in the US, the Government Accountability Office believes that graft and theft costs the US government approximately $521billion a year, which is an eye watering amount. If a portion of this can revert back to the government, that is very promising, and if a whistleblower can receive a portion of such monies, that would be very satisfying. This article pointed out that DOGE wasn’t able to come up with even a small amount of savings, so such programs are and should be used. And, as there seem to be worrying trends on investigations occurring by the US enforcement agencies, whistleblowing will have an outsize effect. Finally, as an international concept, it is slowly moving outwards, as the UK has begun to use these ideas in their own laws. As they say, better late than never!
Link:
https://www.ft.com/content/307a9cbd-f08d-48d4-8ea2-f64153521ab7