Blog #9: The Whsitleblower

What is a Whistleblower? A whistleblower is a government employee who reveals wrong doing. They report waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position of rectifying wrongdoing. 

Thousands of people blow the whistle around the world each year on everything from bad accounting to tax fraud to pollution to illegal wildlife trade. These crimes can have a significant financial impact on the government, company shareholders, and taxpayers. Without a whistleblower it would be extremely difficult for law enforcement to discover these problems on their own. Whistleblowing is one of the most successful ways to detect and prevent corruption.

There are many Laws that go into being a whistleblower. The first one is the False Claims Act. This act is one of the strongest whistleblower protection laws in the United States. Under this law we have Qui tam cases. This allows persons and entities with evidence or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf  of the United States government. The next act is the Dodd-Frank Act. This act is used to promote financial stability by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system. The last one I am going to talk about is the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects “any disclosure of information” by the federal government.

While looking at the history of whistleblowing I found some famous Whistleblowers. The first one is Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the classified “Pentagon Papers” in 1971. Next was Mark Felt who helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon for illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. The third whistleblower is Coleen Rowley who warned FBI Director Robert Mueller about the Bush Administration's deceptive plan to launch a war on Iraq. Lastly, was A. Ernest Fitzgerald. He overlooked the Pentagon and testified over 50 times on Capitol Hill fraud. 

There are always positives and negatives with any job and when becoming a whistleblower it is a good idea to take these seriously. 

Some positives of being a whistleblower are:

1. Legal protection

2. Satisfaction of doing what's right 

3. Deterring future fraud

Some negatives of being a whistleblower:

1. delays - some qui tam lawsuits can take up to 3-5 years before a final answer

2. Lack of understanding- whistleblowers can face criticism or cold shoulders while the process unfolds

Many people think of the term leaking when thinking of whistleblowing but leaking involves the unauthorized release of sensitive material, some of it being valuable to the public. If a whistleblower gives out valuable material they could be faced with prison. A big story in whistleblowing was the story of Edward Snowden. In 2013 he revealed the existence of previously classified mass intelligence-gathering surveillance programs run by the United States National Security Agency and the United Kingdom's intelligence organization, Government Communications Headquarters. Once this happened Snowden was charged with espionage by the United States government. After that he fled the country.  

Believe it or not, whistleblowing affects our society. They affect our society in a good way by keeping our society safe. Our society has to step up and expose problems because many problems could be prevented if we voice our concerns.