Whistleblower Group Urges Canada Group to Develop Whistleblower Protections for Government Employees

Last month, the National Whistleblower Center (“NWC”) submitted a public comment on the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, urging Canada’s Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates to adopt whistleblower protections for government employees and contractors.

 The letter summarizes key points of the January 2017 the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management’s conference regarding Canada’s new Ontario Securities Commission’s Whistleblower Office. The conference brought together world-renowned experts to discuss how whistleblowing works in practice and to support a strong and independent whistleblower program that protects government employees and government contractors.

One of the participants included University of Toronto Professor Alexander Dyck. Professor Dyck is a world-renowned expert on fraud detection methodology, and was the principle author in the key study on the impact of whistleblowing on fraud detection. His findings from his research on fraud detection show that employees are the best ones to uncover fraud because they have the best access to information.  His study also focused on how to get those with the best information to report it. His conclusion was to increase positive incentivizes for becoming a whistleblower (i.e. the payment of rewards).

Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the NWC, also presented at the conference his research and suggested that Canada adopt a law modeled on the U.S. False Claims Act, which protects government employees and contractors and incentivizes their reporting fraud to law enforcement officials.

The letter urges Canada to adopt strong whistleblower protections for federal employees and all contractors who are paid by Canadian taxpayers to perform work on behalf of the government because they are the key to uncovering fraud.

Related Links:

– Read the full letter here.