What are the incentives to encourage whistle-blowing?
In South Korea, whistleblowers … can receive four to 20 per cent of funds recovered
CONCEIVABLY, IN order to encourage whistle-blowing, a rewards system, including monetary rewards, could be considered in a revised bill. However, this brings into focus several questions: Should the government provide financial incentives for disclosure? Is there a need for this? Would the benefits of having such an incentive scheme outweigh possible negative factors it may bring? If financial incentives were to be provided, how would they be funded? These are questions to be discussed, considered and evaluated.
In assessing other jurisdictions, the use of incentives to encourage reporting has shown to be effective. For instance, in the United States, the False Claims Act allows individuals to sue on behalf of the government in order to recover lost or misspent money, and they can receive up to 30 per cent of the amount recovered. Likewise the Dodd-Frank Act authorises the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay rewards to individuals who provide the commission with original information that leads to successful SEC enforcement actions.
In South Korea, whistle-blowers who contribute directly to increasing or recovering government revenues can receive four to 20 per cent of funds recovered. In Nigeria, the Whistle-blowing Policy of December 2016 rewards whistle-blowers with 2.5 to five per cent on cash or assets recovered. Within four months the Nigerian government grossed at least US$232 million from asset recovered. In one case, US$151 million was recovered; imagine five per cent of US$151 million for blowing the whistle!
Legislation that offer incentives such as financial rewards to persons who disclose corrupt practices in comparison to legislation like Jamaica’s, which seeks merely to avoid retaliation against whistle-blowers, has noticeable positive results. Additionally, if and when citizens risk their livelihoods and lives to expose corruption, there ought to be more than the feeling of doing ‘good’.