Surely, most of you have encountered the concept of corruption in public life, both directly and indirectly. This phenomenon consists in using one's position to obtain private material benefits or to run specific matters in return for certain money. How can Whistleblowers help prevent this type of illegal behavior?
What is corruption?
Corruption, known in colloquial terms as bribery is an illegal practice. This situation occurs when one side wants to achieve a certain goal and offers money in return, whether it does so in person or through intermediaries. The most common corrupt activities include:
- the disposal of public assets for private purposes for personal gain,
-bribery, i.e. activities involving the transfer of money in return for profit, bypassing standard procedures,
-trading in influence, e.g. by voting in elections for a specific candidate in order to obtain benefits,
- paid protection, meaning intermediation in settling the matter in any national orinternational institution in return for a given benefit,
-avoiding tax or customs obligations,
-irregularities in the case of public procurement, concessions or contracts,
-illegal disposal of state budget funds for their own benefit,
-nepotism, favoritism.
More and more institutions recognize Whistleblowing systems as tools to fight and counteract corruption. Due to the entry into force of the Whistleblower Protection Directive, employers are required to create internal channels for reporting breaches in organizations. Whistleblower is a system that is the best and safe tool of this type. This software enables not only ticket management, but also provides a number of personalized functionalities.
How does the Whistleblower Protection Directive contribute to the fight against corruption?
The anti-corruption strategy is based on the effective detection of crimes, the implementation of effective tools, increasing public awareness and promot ingethical patterns of conduct. Moreover, it is important to strengthen the transparency of actions taken both by public institutions and the private sector.
The Whistleblower Protection Directive was designed primarily to prevent money laundering, corruption and terrorist financing. It is true that many countries have still not transposed the directive into their national law, but this does not change the fact that employers whose provisions apply to them are obliged to implement the Whistleblower protection system in their company structures.
The aforementioned act was introduced as one of the tools to fight corruption, which has become a very common phenomenon in recent years. One of the ways ofreducing the occurrence of situations presenting the hallmarks of corruption is building the lasting integrity of all employees of the organization. Whistleblowers are responsible for revealing illegal activities taking place in institutions. The more reports employees prepare, the easier it is to eliminate misconduct and breaking the law. Importantly, Whistleblowers need to be sure that when reportinga problem, they will be kept confidential and will not be retaliated against. Employers should make it easier for their subordinates to understand the intricacies of the directive and create a positive atmosphere in the workplace so that signaling violations and offenses will not be negatively perceived by others. Correctly implemented procedures for internal disclosure of problems allow for their identification and elimination at an early stage, which minimizes the damage.
It is for this purpose that the Whistleblower Protection Directive has been introduced and employers have been required to provide a safe, internal channel for reporting problems, including corruption. The Whistleblower is a fully secure and legally compliant system for managing reports.
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