By
Albert Futukpor, GNA
Tamale, Nov 19, GNA
– Discussants at the fourth Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption
Programme National Dialogue on Whistleblowing have called on government to
establish the Whistleblower Reward Fund to encourage citizens to report
wrongdoing.
They argued that
whistleblowing was dangerous, especially when the confidentiality of the
whistleblower could not be guaranteed, hence the need for the establishment of
the fund to assure people of adequate reward for reporting crimes.
The event, held in
Tamale on Tuesday, was organised by the National Commission for Civic Education
(NCCE) with support from the European Union.
Participants
included representatives from public institutions, traditional authorities,
non-governmental organisations, the media amongst others.
Sections 20 to 22 of
the Whistleblower Act, 2006, Act 720, makes for the establishment of the
Whistleblower Reward Fund to provide funds for the payment of monetary rewards
to whistleblowers.Â
However, 13 years
since the passage of the Whistleblower Act, the Whistleblower Reward Fund has
not been established, a situation, which some people have described as a
drawback to efforts to promote whistleblowing in the country.
Mrs Mary Awelana Addah,
Programmes Manager of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, who was one of the
discussants during the dialogue, said people would be willing to blow the
whistle when they knew that they would be rewarded, hence the need for
government to establish the fund.
Excerpts from a
study conducted in 2017 by the Nation Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on
“Public opinion on corruption, accountability and environmental
governance” showed that 64.7 per cent of respondents knew of places to
report acts of corruption, as against 35.7%, who indicated otherwise.
Although, the law
encourages and supports individuals to blow the whistle on unlawful or other
illegal conduct or corrupt practices of other persons, it is believed that most
citizens hesitate to blow the whistle because of fear of victimisation.
According to the
study, 34.6% of respondents indicated that whistle blowers in the country did
not receive any form of protection from anti-corruption agencies, whilst 28.9%
believed that anti-corruption agencies would protect the identities of persons,
who reported cases of corruption.
Mrs Awelana Addah
said besides the establishment of the Whistleblower Reward Fund, there was the
need for intensive awareness creation on the country’s whistleblowing regime
for all to understand it and accordingly report such acts to promote
development.
Nana Amua Sakyi,
Director of Public Education at the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, who was also a discussant, expressed the need for the
citizenry to put pressure on the government and Members of Parliament to do the
needful to establish the Whistleblower Reward Fund.
Some participants
suggested the establishment of technological platforms that would enable
citizens to file complaints on wrongdoing in society in a manner that their
identities would not be disclosed, while others also called for protection of
witnesses during course of investigations.
Madam Josephine
Nkrumah, Chairman of the NCCE, expressed the need for more work to be done to
encourage citizens to play their roles in responding to corruption by
adequately blowing the whistle.
She further
expressed the need for anti-corruption institutions to put in place measures to
safeguard the confidentiality of whistleblowers to encourage them to report
wrongdoing in society.
GNA
