WHISTLE

BLOWING

Professional Ethics Seminar

Group 10
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
 Introduction
Legal Protection
Examples
CONTENTS
Factors to be considered
Case study 1
Case study 2
 WHISTLE
BLOWERS

A whistleblower is a person, usually an

employee, who exposes information or activity
within a private, public, or government
organization that is deemed illegal, illicit,
unsafe, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer funds.

The word is linked to the use of a whistle to

alert the public or a crowd about a bad
situation, such as the committing of a crime or
the breaking of rules during a game.

To protect whistleblowers from losing their job

or getting mistreated there are specific laws.
Most companies have a separate policy which
clearly states how to report such an incident.
 A CLOSER LOOK
TOPIC
DISCLOSURE
• The information concerns
• The act of intentionally
Whistle-blowing occurs when an employee or conveying information outside
what the person believes is a
significant moral problem for
former employee conveys information about a approved organizational the organization
channels.
significant moral problem to someone in a
position to take action on the problem, and
does so outside approved organizational Definition of
channels (or against strong pressure). whistle
AGENT blowing RECIPIENT
• The person disclosing the • The information is conveyed to
There are four main parts to this definition : information is an employee or a person or organization that is
former employee, or someone in a position to act on the
else closely associated with problem.
the organization
 Recipient • Internal Whistle-blowing
of • External Whistle-blowing
information

Classification

• Open Whistle-blowing
Degree of • Anonymous Whistle-
identity blowing
revealed • Partly anonymous
• Fully anonymous
Legal protection for
Whistle-blowers

Legal protection is the source of courage and

encouragement for Whistle Blowers.

There are different laws in different countries, they

vary in magnitude of punishment, definition of
dangerous activity, degree of protection to employees.

Over a dozen countries have now adopted

comprehensive whistleblower protection laws that
create mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing and
provide legal protections to whistleblowers.
Examples
Whistle Blowers’ Protection Act
• In 2003, Recommendation for adoption of Public
Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) was
made.
• Originally named The Public Interest Disclosure and
Protection of Persons Making the Disclosures Bill,
2010 , was later renamed to Whistle Blowers’
protection Act 2014.
• On 9 May 2014, presidential Assent was received,
and act was published in Official Gazette of India.
Laws in the United States of America
• 1863 United States False Claims Act (revised in
1986), tried to combat fraud by suppliers of the
United States government during the American Civil
War. The Act encourages whistleblowers by
promising them a reward.
• The Lloyd–La Follette Act of 1912 guaranteed the
right of federal employees to furnish information to
the United States Congress.
• The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 was
enacted to protect federal employees who disclose
"Government illegality, waste, and corruption“.
Factors to be Positive
• Whistle blowing
Negative
• It is not ethical if
Ethical
Implications of
considered
can be considered
people take the Whistle
an integral part of
opportunity as a
the democratic
way of revenge. Blowing
process

• This may include instances threatening

Seriousness of
public safety.
potential harm
• Acts of fraud and treachery on society

• Whistle blowing effects to be considered, whether the

Adequate
Documentation of publication of information can help competing
harm companies, is it avoidable?

Reporting to • If the source of the problem is the

immediate seniors
or Higher higher management this step
Management cannot be performed

Degree of
remedial/preventio • Whether whistle blowing is worth it?
n of harm
 CASE STUDY-1
• Harshad Mehta was an Indian Stockbroker.

• Found loop holes in the banking system – HARSHAD MEHTA

exploited it .

• Pumped 1000cr into the stock market from

banks illegally using fake bank receipts -
causing the stock price to surge.

• Selectively invested in ACC, Apollo Tyres,

Reliance, Hero Honda, TISCO.

• ACC share price increased from Rs 200 to

Rs 9000.
 WHISTLE-BLOWER
• A trained lawyer joined The Times of India
in the early 1990s as a journalist for their
business and economics wing. SUCHETA DALAL
• Brought the scam to public in 1992.

• This is a case where the whistle-blower is

outside the institution.

This scam led to the empowerment of SEBI

(Securities and Exchange Board of India) as
a statutory power.
 IMPACT
• The scam impacted the entire stock
exchange system.

• The scam affected lakhs of investors and

the stock market experienced a sharp fall in
share prices leading to a loss of Rs one
lakh crore in market capitalisation,
equivalent to more than Rs six lakh crores
or $13.5B today when adjusted to inflation.
 CASE STUDY-2

EDWARD SNOWDEN
• Systems engineer and solution
consultant.

• Worked as a private contractor

for NSA.

• Worked as a private contractor

and also directly for CIA.
• NSA - National Security Agency
I M PA C T E D
• Collects, monitors and processes information for O R G A N I S AT I O N S
intelligence and counter intelligence purposes.

• Comes under U.S department of defense.

• Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance – Intelligence

alliance comprising of U.S.A, Australia, Canada,
U.K and N.Z .

• Snowden leaked thousands of documents

detailing the global surveillance program run by
NSA with the co-operation of
telecommunication companies and other
European governments.

• Five Eyes spied on one another’s citizens and

shared the collected information with each other
in order to circumvent domestic regulations on
surveillance on citizens.
 A CLASSIFIED SLIDE LEAKED
BY SNOWDEN ON PRISM

• NSA used XKeyScore and PRISM

surveillance system for spying.

• XKeyScore and PRISM had direct access

to servers of Google, Microsoft,
Facebook.

• No approval from the court.

• Can access peoples’ emails, PCs camera,

chats photos, videos.
• Led to a debate on the balance between
AFTERMATH
national security vs individual privacy.

• Led to creation of social movements

against mass surveillance.

• US charged Snowden with espionage act

of 1917 and theft of government property.

• After releasing the documents he flew to

Moscow.

• US revoked his passport.

• In October 2020, he was granted

permanent residency in Russia.
• Whistle blowing - not the only solution.

• Should be the last resort.

Solutions to prevent internal and external

whistle-blowing.

• Allow greater freedom and openness of

CONCLUSION
communication within the organisation.

• Direct access to higher levels of

management.

• Forming an ethics review committee.

 Amal Antony 111118005
Athul Sasidharan 111118013
Bilal K Shihab 111118016
E Murarry Reddy 111118026
TEAM G. A. S. S. Srinivas 111118028
MEMBERS John Daniel 111118046
Karthik Sivakumar 111118048
Krishna Kumar 111118052
Madhav Menon 111118058
Pratyush K 111118081