Authorized, Approved – Abused

A Whistleblower is usually a person who reports wrongdoing within his or her organisation - but he/she can be a third party. Whatever the circumstance, the repercussions can be devastating - especially if the wrongdoing is reported to the World Bank. In 2004, a British national appointed to an Armenian Parliamentary Commission exposed wide-ranging fraud, corruption and embezzlement in a WB financed project. He reported the problems to the WB Country Manager and to the Department of Institutional Integrity. But the wrongdoings continued. The British national however became the subject of World Bank ‘Whistleblower’ reprisals, which continue. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) now supports the British national in a claim against the World Bank. Other British nationals were central in the wrongdoings and so documents were submitted to the FCO in the UK. The British Government subsequently added its support in a letter to INT’s Director and the British Serious Fraud Office is monitoring the matter. The claim is also registered with the Volcker Panel, which is presently studying the activities of the INT. After three years, the INT is still preparing a full investigation……………

The Department of Institutional Integrity (INT)

The World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity is mandated by the World Bank Group to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption in Bank Group operations as well as allegations of staff misconduct. The Integrity Department reports its findings to senior management, who in turn decide what measures should be taken. In addition, the Integrity Department assists in preventative efforts to protect Bank Group funds, and those funds entrusted to it, from misuse and to deter fraud and corruption in its operations. The work of an investigative unit aids the World Bank in ensuring that funds are used for their intended purposes, thereby contributing to the organization's core mission of promoting development and reducing poverty.

The Government Accountability Project

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. GAP was founded in 1977, in the wake of the Pentagon Papers scandal, as a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. It has been a lifeboat for more than 3,000 citizen activists providing a range of services including legal information, referrals, counselling, advocacy, litigation, legislative affairs, and media advice. GAP has also been a driving force in many legislative advances in whistleblower protection, including the Sarbanes-oxley Act of 2002 and the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989.

GAP has developed in-house expertise in several areas such as promoting corporate accountability, strengthening the rights and protections of whistleblowers, ensuring safe and cost-effective cleanup at nuclear weapons facilities, increasing food and drug safety, enforcing environmental protection laws, seeking better protection for whistleblowers internationally, and curtailing national security abuses. To assist whistleblowers, GAP attorneys and organizers seek to galvanize a public response to the issue, and take whistleblowers’ evidence of wrongdoing to appropriate government agencies, congressional committees, and others on Capitol Hill to investigate, expose, and rectify the problems they have identified.

United Kingdom Bribery & Corruption

Since 14 February 2002, UK-registered companies and UK nationals can be prosecuted in the UK for an act of bribery committed wholly overseas. Under UK law a company can be criminally liable if it aids or abets an act of bribery by any of its overseas subsidiaries or if it conspires with an overseas subsidiary to commit such an act.

Civil servants and locally engaged employees in British Diplomatic Posts overseas who, in the course of their duties, become aware of, or receive information relating to, acts of bribery committed by UK nationals or companies incorporated in the UK must report the matter to London, either via the FCO Business Team or direct to the appropriate UK authority. The FCO transmits such reports to the ‘Serious Fraud Office’ so that the appropriate UK authorities can decide whether to pursue an investigation. The Civil Service Code, which obliges officials to report evidence of criminal or unlawful activity, can be viewed at: www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/central/1999/cscode.htm

The United Nations Convention against Corruption came into force on 14 December 2005, has been signed by over 100 countries, and the UK ratified on 9 February 2006 …………..

United Nations Convention Against Corruption

Article 13

Participation of society

1. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures, within its means and in accordance with fundamental principles of its domestic law, to promote the active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as civil society, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, in the prevention of and the fight against corruption and to raise public awareness regarding the existence, causes and gravity of and the threat posed by corruption. This participation should be strengthened by such measures as:

a. Enhancing the transparency of and promoting the contribution of the public decision-making processes;

b. Ensuring that the public has effective access to information;

c. Undertaking public information activities that contribute to non-tolerance of corruption, as well as public education programmes, including school and university curricula;

d. Respecting, promoting and protecting the freedom to seek, receive, publish and disseminate information concerning corruption.

e. That freedom may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided for by law and are necessary:

(i) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(ii) For the protection of national security or order public or of public health or morals.

2. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to ensure that the relevant anti-corruption bodies referred to in this Convention are known to the public and shall provide access to such bodies, where appropriate, for the reporting, including anonymously, of any incidents that may be considered to constitute an offence established in accordance with this Convention.

Article 32
Protection of witnesses, experts and victims

1. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures in accordance with its domestic legal system and within its means to provide effective protection from potential retaliation or intimidation for witnesses and experts who give testimony concerning offences established in accordance with this Convention and, as appropriate, for their relatives and other persons close to them. ...

Article 33
Protection of reporting persons

Each State Party shall consider incorporating into its domestic legal system appropriate measures to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offences established in accordance with this Convention.

Blowing the World Bank Whistle

World Bank retaliates against Parliamentary Whistleblower

Thursday, January 1, 2009

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Authorized, Approved – Abused

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