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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ben Wa who wrote (9761)	5/1/2002 1:36:29 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Blow the whistle, UK financial cop tells workers By Clelia Oziel LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Britain began a campaign on Wednesday to encourage workers to blow the whistle on colleagues and bosses guilty of financial malpractice, drawing lessons from the scandals that brought down Barings bank and Enron. Carol Sergeant, managing director of the Financial Services Authority watchdog, said the whistleblowing initiative, backed by legislation to protect those who ring the alarm, was a "win, win, win" for everyone, even the firms involved. "Whistleblowing procedures and our decision to encourage workers to blow the whistle internally in the first place means that senior management will be the first, not the last, to know about potential problems," Sergeant told a conference on the issue. The FSA move comes after a series of scandals rocked confidence in the financial industry in recent years. One of the most infamous of these, the collapse of investment bank Barings in 1995, could have been prevented, some argue, if colleagues had felt able to speak out about rogue trader Nick Leeson without risking victimisation or dismissal. Whistleblowing should support companies' risk management procedures at very little cost, discourage fraud and create an environment of trust in the workplace. And employees should not fear for their jobs, the FSA argues. Whistleblower Sherron Watkins, who helped reveal the Enron debacle by telling top management that the company would implode in a wave of accounting scandals, kept her job and won celebrity. Watkins is appearing on the lecture circuit and has negotiated a fee for her participation in a book about Enron that fetched a reported $500,000 advance for its Houston author. CARROT, NOT STICK The FSA issued guidelines for firms to bring in procedures for staff to blow the whistle internally. The FSA has powers to make rules and fine fraudsters, but Sergeant said: "We will monitor how effectively this is implemented. We will take stock and review the situation in due course." The watchdog also set up a dedicated whistleblowing phone line and an e-mail address -- whistle.fsa.gov.uk -- for people to lodge any tip-offs. But Sergeant said people should use the FSA only as a backstop. About 10 percent of calls led to or helped in investigations, but some of the callers were "just hysterical." "Of course there is a risk that we will be deluged with calls. So if you are a fish-and-chip shop, please don't call us," Sergeant said. Britain has been leading the push for whistleblowing. It is the only country in the world with a legislative framework for safe whistleblowing. The Public Interest and Disclosure Act, which came into force in 1999, allows those who make disclosures of criminal offence or miscarriage of justice at the workplace to bring a legal claim in respect of victimisation. The initiative received positive response from the industry, including the trade unions and industry associations. Michael Smyth, chairman of Public Concern at Work -- a charity organisation -- welcomed the FSA's "carrot rather than stick" approach. 05/01/02 11:44 ET