Sri Lanka: Law to protect the whistleblowers is a must

By Nagananda Kodituwakku writes from London

(July 03, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) In Sri Lanka, persecution of whistleblowers, who refused to give into illegal demands of the politicians is a matter for concern, particularly when the developed nations have addressed this issue with a adequate safeguard to protect the whistle blowers.

In the UK, Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, provides legal protection to workers who are victimized by employers for "blowing the whistle" about wrongdoing at work. The peace of legislation which has been described as the most far-reaching "whistle blowing" legislation in the world, provides clear protection to the officials who are dismissed or subjected to detriment by their employer for making certain categories of disclosure, i.e. a disclosure of information which, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, concerns:

" criminal offences; " breaches of legal obligation; " miscarriages of justice " health and safety dangers; " environmental risk; or " any "cover-ups" relating to these matters.

Legal protection under this law is also provided if disclosure is made through the media, but only where the matter is exceptionally serious, was not raised in the workplace because of fear of victimisation or cover-up, or where the matter was pursued internally or with a prescribed body but not dealt with properly.

The aim of the legislation is to encourage workers to raise their concerns through the appropriate internal channels. Under this legislation, where a worker has made a “protected disclosure” and is either dismissed or subjected to any other detriment by his or her employer as a result of the disclosure, the employer's action will be unlawful and the worker may seek financial redress from an employment tribunal.

Dismissal will be regarded as automatically unfair if the reason for dismissal, or selection for redundancy, is because the employee made a protected disclosure. There will be no limit on compensatory awards in cases of dismissal, a provision intended to ensure that employees at all levels of an organisation, from the shop floor to the boardroom, will be fully compensated if they lose their jobs for blowing the whistle. Another important feature of this peace of legislation is that any term in a worker's contract, which purports to prevent the worker from making a protected disclosure will be void.

This act has put in place to end the "cover-up" culture, where workers fear victimisation if they disclose wrongdoing committed by powerful officials, which include politicians. The UK government believes that this legislation can help ensure that potential disasters are averted and could prevent financial loss.
In the recent past time back the Ministry of Finance acknowledged that at least five Customs Officers had left the country in fear of life. It is learned that these officers have refused to drop revenue fraud investigations and refused illegal orders by the corrupt politicians.

However, whilst admitting this damaging trend, in a circular issued to customs officers, the Ministry of Finance banned the customs officers from leaking the information to the press. The situation is very dangerous particularly in an environment where the revenue officers who perform their public duty without any fear or favour are targeted and eliminated by the powerful fraudster-politico-cheats. It is very unfortunate that those who enjoy people’s executive power has failed to realise that none of these officers would have left the country had the government taken right measures to secure their life from the threats posed by the organized fraudster-politico-mafia. The only reason for the governments inaction to protect the officers, [those who were murdered and others left the country in fear of life] is that those officers refused to give into the illegal demands that came from the top to suppress the major revenue frauds, as powerful politicos were found concerned in most of the major revenue frauds.

In this environment the best form of defense for those who performing their public duty without any fear or favor is to provide a legal protection for them and bringing in legislation somewhat similar to Public Interest Disclosure Act in the UK that would not only provide protection to the whistleblowers but also safeguard the peoples’ right to information.

(The writer, Former head of the revenue fraud investigations [Customs])

-Sri Lanka Guardian