Tips from whistleblowers can play an important role in reports of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
In our review of private sector employment practices, we found that practices that create trust may incentivize employees to report potential wrongdoing. Fear of adverse outcomes or retaliation may disincentivize them. We looked at a sample of federal agencies and found that they have various ways to encourage and protect whistleblowers. For example, the agencies we looked at use confidentiality to protect whistleblowers’ identities. Agencies also told us they have challenges, such as processing high volumes of reports.
Tips and disclosures from the public, including workers, are an important source of information for agencies that enforce the law or issue regulations. However, workers who wish to notify agencies of potential wrongdoing risk reprisals from their employers and may have concerns about what their organizations’ non-disclosure and employment agreements allow.
Differences in mission and statutory authority mean that federal agencies use a variety of mechanisms to protect disclosers and encourage them to report wrongdoing. These range from providing confidentiality to those who come forward with information to incentivizing disclosures through award programs. In addition, some agencies have warned that organizations’ overly broad non-disclosure agreements are unenforceable if they contain language that restricts employees...
Kenneth Scott Miller, 48, is charged with a felony count of making a false report to law enforcement. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $500 bond. According to an Escambia County ...