A few years ago, Saudi Arabia introduced a decision to protect whistleblowers due to the rise of corruption complaints. Whistleblowers provide valuable, and often crucial, information to government and private entities to curb illegal and unethical activities.

To give and apply for incentives, the concerned party, or the inspector, and the whistleblower both need to meet certain conditions.

There should be a legal text that enables the concerned party, or the inspector, to grant the incentive reward for reporting the detected violation.

The report should concern different aspects of the violation, and it should not have been reported earlier.

The whistleblower and the inspector should not be first-degree relatives.

These briefly aforementioned conditions should determine the eligibility of the reward without any prejudice.

To award the whistleblower, a five-person committee formed by concerned authorities is convened to study and review the case based on the importance and severity of the violation before deciding on the incentive award, which should be within the limits of the stipulated statutory provisions.

The members vote and present their findings to the head of the concerned authority for approval, and the committees are reconstituted every three years.

• Dimah Talal Alsharif is a Saudi legal consultant, head of the health law department at the law firm of Majed Garoub and a member of the International Association of Lawyers. Twitter: @dimah_alsharif

Disclaimer:...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiJWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFyYWJuZXdzL...