A dicey job

LAHORE: One wonders why despite a law protecting and rewarding whistleblowers in Pakistan, we see hardly anyone coming forward to expose irregularities in businesses and in institutions. Are they denied the rewards or they fear exposure?

Whistleblowing is a risky job particularly in societies that are extremely corrupt. Exposing the wrongdoing or illegal acts in an organisation is a difficult job for the employee of the organisation. It entails risk of being exposed and then of reprisal from the corrupt that are more influential.

It may also make the whistleblower a pariah not among colleagues but also in the market (that is predominantly corrupt) effectively ending his career.

The rewards for whistleblowing go back to 1997 when the Ehtesab Cell of the then government announced rewards and assured secrecy of the identity of whistleblowers. This protection and reward promise has continued in subsequent accountability regimes.

Even the Competition Commission of Pakistan has incorporated this regime for whistleblowers providing authentic information of the fraud or regulatory offences in different sectors.

Whistleblowing comes mostly from members of the organisation who feel compelled to report wrongdoings by their own sense of moral behaviour. This act is not seen positively by the concerned organisations.

Some studies have shown that many insiders despite having irrefutable proof of wrongdoing in their organisation do not report it because the organisation culture (where they have friendly colleagues) looks down on such acts. Moreover, they are afraid of retaliation from the sponsors of the organisation that are highly influential in the society.

Still whistleblowing is the most effective method of alerting on corporate fraud that has escaped the eyes of internal audit, management review and account reconciliation. The whistleblower provides the authorities with irrefutable documentary proofs that might have been overlooked intentionally or unintentionally by the auditors.

Whistleblowers need strong protection from frequent retaliations of colleagues and employers and need protection and encouragement. This confidence has been provided to them in the developing economies, including G20 that have established a regulatory framework to protect whistleblowers.

In Pakistan, the incidence of corruption is very high in public sector organisations and cannot be easily rooted out. It is no secret that corrupt public servants loot a big chunk from the country’s exchequer.

Still, we see no cases of whistleblowing against public sector organisations. The number of whistleblowers in the private sector is also not encouraging. In view of the limited number of job opportunities, employees prefer to remain silent and not risk their jobs.

Whistleblowers are brave individuals who are willing to risk their careers to make the organisation a better place and protect the public interest. They need to be treated with respect and honour.

Most of them would like their identities concealed even after convictions. It is not clear as to how many of them have been rewarded for their bravery or how many deprived of actual reward by threatening to expose their names.

Those who take the initiative are at the mercy of the investigating agency. Though most want their identity concealed, a few of them have been forced to come out in the open when they were denied the promised reward for their disclosure.

One such case is that of Aamir Ahsan Khan who exposed with proof, the wrongdoing of Schon Group in 1997. Even after recovery of over Rs3 billion from the group, the whistleblower is waiting for his 10 percent reward.

After many representations, he was constrained to go to court for the promised reward in November 2020. His case redirected by the court is still pending. This has appeared many times in the press and it may have deterred many prospective whistleblowers.

This attitude also explains why whistleblowers are not coming forward. Most workers help their employers in concealing sales tax and excise duties at manufacturing and import stage. They do so without any additional benefits.

The looted money goes to the coffers of the employer and they get the fixed monthly salaries only. But they dare not report it to the authorities because the fraud is conducted in connivance with the concerned public officials.

They fear being exposed even before the investigations starts and dread getting thrown out of their job. No other organisation would accept them because their name would be tainted with the ‘honest disclosures’ they made before authorities.

The culprit may get a clean chit, but the whistleblower may come out with the negative image of either a disgruntled employee or a trouble maker. This is the reason that even blatant violation of rules is ignored by prospective whistleblowers, making more than 99 percent look the other way and save their jobs.