The pain of blowing the whistle

Mary spoke at our PwC Fraud Academy event recently in Auckland. We’re not generally fans of aliases at PwC Forensic Services for obvious reasons but this event was an exception, for a remarkable woman.

Some years ago, Mary had worked for a large organisation in an Administrator role and discovered that her boss, a trusted and well respected senior manager, had defrauded the business of several hundred thousand dollars. All the stealing had occurred during the many years Mary had worked for him.

Using a lounge-chair interview format we asked Mary to talk about her experience. The purpose of the session was for clients and others interested to learn about whistleblowing from a whistleblower’s perspective.

Today’s business context demands that organisations are transparent, have zero tolerance to fraud, bullying, harassment and other inappropriate behaviour. When events occur or allegations are made, how an organisation deals with it can have a profound impact on its reputation. At this event we heard about the profound impact on a whistleblower too.

Mary discovered the possibility of fraud many months before she felt comfortable coming forward. She spoke to family. She anguished over whether what she had found was really evidence of wrong-doing. She wanted to be certain herself. She even googled to find out what happens to whistleblowers. The answers were not encouraging.

You might think that this organisation must have had failings of process and culture. Actually, this organisation had a Protected Disclosures Policy, people that could be spoken to, systems for getting support and most would agree, an open and trusting culture.

What we learned above all else from Mary was that organisations need clear, proven, trusted, anonymous systems that protect those that discover wrong-doing. She spoke a lot about the protection she really needed and expressed feelings of isolation from many, as well as individual support from key management. It was a mixed bag for her really.

Mary had some advice too, for the investigators who came later: show some empathy. This is not a victimless crime.

She was not at all certain that a hotline would have done it for her, as she had no way of knowing who might be on the end of the line.

This last point is important. We administer whistleblower services for a number of clients, including a call-in service. The best whistleblower services for our clients are where they have been patient and built credibility in the system. And when I say best, I don’t mean that they have lots of wrong-doing. I mean the services where employees feel safe to call, even if they’re not certain, or even if it’s not strictly speaking a matter that you might ordinarily think of as serious misconduct as defined, say, in the Protected Disclosures Act. Bullying, harassment and breaches of policies are common concerns not captured fully by that Act. Our clients who are receptive to taking those matters seriously are much more likely to create whistleblower systems that have a trusted reputation (along with other disclosure mechanisms) where to “speak up” is encouraged and respected.

PwC’s purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. From feedback I received after the session, many in the audience at the event are thinking very seriously about how they can truly build trust in their organisations’ disclosure mechanisms.

The last word goes to a member of the audience who texted in his or her comment after we’d had questions fed through to me in the interviewer’s seat: “Amazing courage, integrity and fortitude. Thank you for sharing”.

Thanks Mary, it was the most attentive audience we’ve had and let’s hope that next time someone is unlucky enough to be in your position, that they have the integrity and courage you do what you did, and get the support needed.

Stephen

PwC Forensic Services offers comprehensive independent whistleblower services

• For more information contact Stephen Drain, or Michael Leightley who manages our Whistleblower Services.
  
• If you would like more information about PwC Fraud Academy events contact our Associate Director Jenny McMurray

This event was conducted under the Chatham House Rule and we did not identify Mary, the organisation, or the offender.

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