This presentation on public and private initiatives in whistleblower protection was made by Leah Ambler of the OECD Anti-Bribery Division at the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption in St Petersburg on 2-6 November 2015. Find out more atwww.oecd.org/corruption/whistleblower-protection.htm

1. TOWARDS COMPREHENSIVE
PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR
WHISTLEBLOWER
PROTECTION
Leah Ambler, OECD Anti-Corruption Division
Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention
against Corruption, St Petersburg, 2-6 November 2015
The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily represent the views of
member countries of the OECD or OECD Working Group on Bribery

2. International whistleblower protection
standards
• 1998 & 2003 OECD Public Service
Recommendations
• UNCAC Article 33
• 2009 OECD Anti-Bribery Recommendation
• 2010 OECD Good Practice Guidance
• 2011 OECD MNE Guidelines
• 2014 CoE Recommendation on the protection of
whistleblowers
• 2015 G20/OECD Principles for Corporate
Governance

3. Definition
“legal protection from discriminatory or
disciplinary action, of employees who
disclose to the competent authorities in
good faith and on reasonable grounds
wrongdoing of whatever kind in the
context of their workplace”
• Distinction between whistleblower
protection and witness protection

4. Whistleblower protection legislation in
OECD countries
• Dedicated whistleblower protection laws
(e.g. Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand,
South Africa, UK)
• Anti-corruption laws (e.g. Estonia, Slovenia, Italy)
• Public service laws (e.g. Austria, Chile, Iceland,
Portugal, Switzerland)
• Labour laws (e.g. France, Luxembourg, Norway)
• Criminal codes (e.g. Canada, Mexico)
• Sector specific (e.g. US (SOX Act), Australia
(Banking Act))

5. Entry into force of dedicated whistleblower
protection Laws: A timeline
7.5. Introduction of lobbying regulation, 1940-14
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
AUS
BEL
HUN
IRE
USA
ISR
UK
NZL
JPN
CAN
NLD
KOR
SVK
• More OECD countries have put in place dedicated whistleblower protection
laws in the past five years than in the previous 25.

6. Challenges in providing protection to
reporting persons
• Need for protected reporting in the public AND private
sector, including SOEs
• Scope of protection:
– Definition of protected persons (consultants, contractors, trainees,
temporary employees, former employees, potential employees,
volunteers);
– Definition of discriminatory or retaliatory action;
– Internal vs external reporting;
– Subject matter of reports (general wrongdoing vs corruption);
– Anonymous vs confidential reporting;
– “Good faith” and “reasonable grounds” criteria;
– Incentives for whistleblowers and penalties for retaliators

7. The good faith criteria and anonymous
reporting in the public sector
13.33333333
180
measuresin place to preclude individuals fromreporting allegations
in bad faith
No: 15%
Yes: 85%
The majority of OECD respondents
preclude bad faith reporting in the public
sector
Can whistleblowersprotect their identity through anonymous
reporting?
Yes:59%
No:41%
Anonymous reporting is available in the
Public Sector in just over half of surveyed
OECD countries

8. Issues specific to legislating for private
sector whistleblower protection
• Only 14 of 41 Parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery
Convention have effective private sector protection;
• Private sector whistleblowers report internally first;
• Territorial application (e.g. foreign-based employees,
employees of foreign subsidiaries);
• Reporting hotline vs guarantees of protected
reporting and prevention against retaliation;
• Ensuring anonymity/confidentiality in ensuing
criminal procedures and in small countries;
• The collision of data protection and whistleblower
protection laws.

9. Private sector whistleblower
protection in practice
86%
13%
1%
Yes
No
I don't know
Most surveyed organisations had a
mechanism to report suspected
instances of serious corporate
misconduct BUT …
61%
21%
18%
Yes
No
I don't know
More than 1/3 of organisations with a
reporting mechanism did not have, or
did not know of, a written policy of
protecting those who report from
reprisals

10. Next steps
• Promote full implementation of international
standards on public and private sector
whistleblower protection and provide guidance on
rights and obligations when reporting wrongdoing
• Encourage countries to develop data, benchmarks
and indicators on effectiveness of whistleblower
protection frameworks
• Encourage protected reporting mechanisms and
prevention of retaliation in companies’ internal
controls, ethics and compliance programmes

11. Further information
www.oecd.org/corruption
www.oecd.org/corruption/
whistleblower-protection.htm