Prime Minister Office Whistle blowing agency
I give my views on how to create an agency to handle whistle blowing to deal with corruption.

1.  It should preferably be placed under the police department.
2.  It should comprise of specially trained processionals.
3.  It should handle feedback against public agency and private companies.

I suggest the following approach to handle the feedback.

1.  The channel should ensure total secrecy for the person providing the feedback (i.e. the blower).
2.  The blower should be identified - to avoid malicious complaints
3.  The blower should be interviewed in private by an investigator who will access the credibility of the feedback.
4.  When the feedback is classified as credible, it has to be handled to the respective organization to carry out an internal investigation. The identity of the blower should be kept secret.
5. The results of the internal investigation should be reported to the whistle blowing agency.

I give the following examples of the types of feedback that will be handled.

1. Reports about sexual harrassment by senior staff towards junior staff of students.
2. Reports of request for financial loans or payments by people in charge of procurement or projects.

Under the current arrangement, the victims are not prepared to give the feedback as they are not assured of the confidentiality of their feedback. 

An additional difficulty is that channel needs to handle malicious  feedback or receive sufficient information to verify the credibility of the feedback.

If the channel is placed under an agency with specially trained and experienced professionals, it will be able to ensure the confidentiality and deal with the credibility of the feedback.

I hope that the whistle blowing channel can be developed to be credible and effective. 

Tan Kin Lian


 
 

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