Whistleblowing and Whistleblower Protection Act. ICC Guidelines on Whistleblowing. Should the whisteblowing act be extended in the private sector? I have uploaded it in the pdf format.

1. WHISTLEBLOWING AND WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ACT
MANVENDRA P.S. BISHT - 140201073 MAYAN TANEJA - 140201074 MAYANK GUPTA - 140201075 MAYANK JAIN - 140201076 MAYANK SITLANI - 140201077 MOHD MOHTASHIM - 140201078
SECTION: B GROUP : 3

2. WHISTLEBLOWING
Whistleblowing refers to the unauthorized disclosure of the unethical, illegal or corrupt practices by an employee to protect the public interest. The concept of whistleblowing has taken an important stand in the contemporary world both in public sector and in private sector.

3. STAGES OF WHISTLEBLOWING INCIDENT
•Stage One – Is There a Potential Whistle Blowing Scenario ?
•Stage Two – Seriousness Test
•Stage Three – Reality Check
•Stage Four – Becoming Aware of the Big Picture
•Stage Five – Forcing Management Recognition of the Problem
•Stage Six – Taking the Problem to Upper Management
•Stage Seven – Going Outside the Organization
•Stage Eight – Living with The Results

4. CONDITIONS FOR WHISTLEBLOWING
Richard T. De George
Three conditions that must hold for whistleblowing to be morally permissible and two additional conditions that must hold for it to be morally obligatory.

5. CONDITIONS FOR WHISTLEBLOWING
CONDITION 1
•The firm is liable to cause serious harm to the public that can be mediated both by its product or its policy, whether an innocent bystander who is basically the person of the user of its product, or the general public
CONDITION 2
•As soon as the employee identifies a serious threat to the product user or to the general public at large, the employee should report it to his immediate superior and make his moral concern known to his senior. The act of Whistle blowing is not justifiable unless it is done.
CONDITION 3
•If the superior takes no action, the employee should take the matter to the higher superiors and if possible to the board of directors.

6. CONDITIONS FOR WHISTLEBLOWING
ADDITIONAL CONDITION 1
•Whistle-blower must have a proper evidence to justify his case and convince the authority or the general public that the organization’s product or policy poses a serious threat to the product user or to the general public.
ADDITIONAL CONDITION 2
•The employee must understand that necessary changes may be brought about, by him going to the public. The chance of being successful must be worth the risk one takes and danger to which one is exposed.

7. WHISTLE-BLOWERS IN INDIA
Satyendra Dubey, chief engineer National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)
Shanmughan Manjunath Indian Oil Corporation Officer

8. Why does someone need protection for speaking the truth? Are we ruled by corruption?

9. ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACED BY A WHISTLEBLOWER

10. ETHICAL DILEMMAS OF WHISTLE BLOWER
•Supervisors or the managers feel that the decision making process of the company gets affected with the interruption of the lower level management tattling upon with whistle blowing.
•Due to this many employees refrain from speaking up to avoid the conflict with the upper management.
•The employee also feels the fear of losing the job
Supervisors’ Condemnation
•To avoid losing the trust of the co-workers, the employee refrains from whistle blowing, which could harm his own reputation among his colleagues and as there is a regular communication between the employees in the company.
•Many employees avoid whistle blowing to maintain loyalty and trust with the co-workers.
Colleagues’ Condemnation
•The ethical dilemma of whistle blowing depends on the fact that how loyal a person feels for his company.
•If the person feels vote less or disoriented, the chances of him being the whistle blower increases and if he considers himself as an important member of the company and understands the responsibility, does not speak up against the company.
Loyalty to the company
•No employee would like to wrongly accuse his company or any of the higher authorities of his company of the felony and thus does the double check on the evidence he has as this could affect his credibility.
•He has more chances of coming up if he has the justifiable reason or the evidence.
Evidence against the felon

11. WHISTLE BLOWER PROTECTION ACT, INDIA

12. WHISTLE BLOWERS PROTECTION ACT
Definition- Under the Constitution of India “An act to establish a mechanism to receive complaints relating to disclosure on any allegation of corruption or wilful misuse of power or wilful misuse of discretion against any public servant and to inquire or cause an inquiry into such disclosure and to provide adequate safeguards against victimisation of the person making such complaint and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.”

13. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BILL
•The provisions of the act may not apply to- Jammu and Kashmir Armed forces of the union, being the special protection group constitute under the special group act, 1988.
•The aim of the bill is to protect the whistle blowers that make a public interest disclosure. The PID can be made in act of – Power misused Corruption Criminal offence by a Public servant
•The PID must be in writing or electronic mail and in accordance with the procedure defined.

14. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BILL
•The PID may be made to the competent authority as defined by the bill.
•Then the enquiry is made by the competent authority without revealing the identity of the whistle blower and verifies his/her facts.
•The competent authority has the authority to ask documents from any person who shall be able to furnish any useful information.
•The whistle blower if is being victimized or likely to be victimized he may file an application to the competent authority to look into the matter and protect him/her.
•The bill penalizes the person who make a PID and the PID is deemed to be mala fidelity and knowingly that it was incorrect shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years and a fine extended to 50,000 INR.

15. INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE GUIDELINES ON WHISTLEBLOWING

16. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
 Enterprises are encouraged to establish, within their Organization and as an integral part of their integrity programme, a whistleblowing system, commensurate with their size and resources.
•The International Chamber of Commerce has given some guidelines on whistleblowing.
•The ICC guidelines help companies to establish and implement whistle blowing programs.
•There are guidelines are based on broad experience of ICC Member companies ranging across various sectors.

17. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
Such whistleblowing system should aim to: • answer, in full confidentiality, all reasonable requests for advice and guidance on business conduct matters and ethical concerns raised by the employees of the enterprise and of its subsidiaries or affiliates and by any of the group’s agents, suppliers and customers; and to; • receive and handle, at the earliest stage possible, all reports made about any occurrence, whether established or soundly suspected, of a breach of applicable laws and regulations, the enterprise’s code of conduct or the ICC Combating Extortion and Bribery Rules of Conduct and Recommendations, which could seriously harm the enterprise or the group, if no remedial action is taken.

18. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
 A whistleblowing system, being part and parcel of the enterprises’ voluntary integrity programs, will only be successful if it is not over-regulated from the outside. Enterprises, however, should be aware that, in certain jurisdictions and cultural environments and because of data protection and labour law concerns, legal restrictions have been imposed on whistleblowing procedures, which they will have to comply with.

19. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
Each individual enterprise may decide, taking into account the applicable law of every country, in which a whistleblowing system will be put into place. In deciding to opt for an anonymous whistleblowing system, a company may take into account its cultural environment, as well as issues relating to the protection of privacy and the risk of unfair reporting. If an enterprise considers that reporting is made on a voluntary basis, its employees may opt to report a serious occurrence under any other internal or external procedure available.

20. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
 All whistle blowers’ reports should be diligently acknowledged, recorded and screened. If there is abuse of the process, disciplinary action can be envisaged. As soon as reasonably possible, the main results of the due diligence examination should be appropriately communicated as feedback to the whistle blower. The person whose behaviour has been reported, should also be informed of the main object of the ongoing procedure, thereby allowing this person to present objections.

21. GUIDELINES SET BY INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
All employees should be in a position to report serious occurrences without fear of retaliation or of discriminatory or disciplinary action. Therefore, the whistle blower’s employment, remuneration and career opportunities should be protected by the enterprise during a reasonable period of time.

22. SHOULDN’T THE BILL BE EXTENDED IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR AS WELL??

23. NEED FOR THE BILL
•The corruption or illegal practices not only affects the economy of the country but also affects the human resources.
•It deteriorates the protection of rights, ethics and hence overall efficiency.
•According to survey conducted by Transparent International, India is at 94th position in the Transparent International’s Corruption Perception Index. More than 60% of the employees have an experience of influencing others to get the work done.
•The private companies are secretly involved with different kinds of agencies and organisations without caring about the economic growth but their growth.
•Ethical people who wish to reveal the malpractices of the private bodies but they are unable to do so due to unrefined and incomplete whistle blower protection act.

24. HOW WILL THE PRIVATE SECTOR BE BENEFITTED?
•It gives the right of being equal and gives freedom of information.
•It brings in justice and fairness.
•It also protects employee and consumer health.
•It serves as a check on seniors members.
•It makes the employees more comfortable and they feel free and independent to raise their issues.
•It saves life hence this act is right to be implemented.

25. CONCLUSION…
In the purview of this discussion there are questions posed at large on a person’s morality and honesty and the repercussions that follows the fate of the whistle blowers. Hence, once again it is to be asked that does it suffice to extend protection to whistle blowers in public sector while denying the same to those in private sector and leaving the in a precarious state? Thus, there is indeed a need to make the bill robust by extending it to the private sector so that the whistle blowers in the private sector have the same sense of security as is possessed by the ones in the public sector.

26. THE FINAL PICTURE..

27. THANK YOU