Public officers who make a log of illegal directives given by government will be protected by whistleblower legislation, according to former president Bharrat Jagdeo, who yesterday warned that those who do not will face the consequences should his party return to office.
“If at any time, whether now or in the future when the PPP resumes office in this country, we find, because we are going to review every single case, that public officers have acted contrary to the law or have acted against individuals based on political directions, then those officers will face the consequences,” Jagdeo told a press conference at Freedom House, Robb Street.
He informed that his party has already started creating a database of alleged political interference in the public sector and will be reviewing each instance on a case by case basis whenever it returns to power.
However, those persons who provide hard evidence will be protected by soon to be tabled whistleblower legislation, which he said the PPP will support. “We will support whistleblower legislation soon…some public officers may be exposed to political directions and they are fearful that their jobs would be on the line if they don’t carry them out.
Whistleblower legislation will basically protect those officers,” he asserted.
Jagdeo said that if the PPP ascends to office again it will take into consideration that persons might have been pressured by their political leaders but he urged that they keep logs of such instances.
“I am not worried about alienating public officers, this is to protect them, because we want, if they are given an illegal instruction, all they have to say when that investigation takes place—because every act where we have a complaint will be investigated—so, if that public officer says, ‘This is how I got whatever,’ I would urge the public officers to log… the name, the time they got the instruction and keep it. Or if they have it in writing, they should keep it in writing, so, if at some point and time they can show that, we will understand they were pressured by the political leadership into performing those acts,” he added.
The Protected Disclosures (Whistleblower) Bill 2015, in the name of Attorney General Basil Williams, was published last December. It is not clear when it will be tabled in the National Assembly but has been published on the website of the Official Gazette.
According to the Explanatory Memorandum, the bill marks another step towards full compliance with the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. It says that the legislation would assist in combating corruption and other wrongdoings both in the public and private sector by encouraging and facilitating the making by employees of specified disclosures of “improper conduct” in good faith and the public interest.
It also seeks to regulate the receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with disclosures of improper conduct; to protect employees who make specified disclosures from being subjected to occupational detriment; and for related matters.
There have long been calls, dating back to the early 2000s, by anti-corruption groups, for whistleblower legislation, which will seek to combat corruption and other wrongs in the public and private sectors by encouraging and facilitating disclosures by employees. PPP/C governments did not present this legislation over 23 years in office.
