A ticking time bomb?
7. 3. 2018 - / Články
In its recent March/April issue, Fraud Magazine speaks with veteran CFEs Ján Lalka in the Czech Republic, Jonathan T. Marks in the U.S., and Sean McAuley in Scotland about how fraud examiners can help organizations develop secure, workable whistleblowing programs. This article explains why they're essential and, in some cases, a matter of life and death.
Jan Lalka said for The Fraud Magazine:
- "The EU pushes us to have anti-corruption laws, so the government of Slovakia dutifully passed one that required companies to implement whistleblowing systems," Lalka says. " 'Look at our new law,' Slovak officials told EU representatives from Brussels. 'Be happy.' But there was nothing to be happy about."
- When the law was first proposed in 2014, Lalka and his colleagues weighed in during the public comment period. "As a legal document, the law was fine, but there was no guidance on how to implement it," he says. Nor did the state promote the law in any way. The law contains no case studies, no explanation of the benefits whistleblowing systems would produce, no indication of what functionality these systems should offer and no information on how to determine whether the systems were effective.
- "So, organizations just went through the motions, hiring lawyers to write up formal plans for the systems," Lalka says. Companies set up dedicated email accounts and phone lines to receive tips, held a few seminars and paid no further attention to the law. "As a result, people here still don't think it's safe to blow the whistle," he says.
