ethically and find it difficult to adhere to unethical practices. In a way these people put the interests of others and the society above their own as they do realize that by reporting fraudulent activities, they are putting their own selves and their careers at risk. But history has shown that whistle blowers are usually ostracized, punished or humiliated. Many of them even lose their jobs. Punishment of whistle blowers has now become a serious issue and we find that most of these whistle blowers are either suspended, dismissed, fired, humiliated, harassed or demoted. In some cases, it takes the form of extreme employee bullying wherein an entire department turns against a single individual.
This is the main reason that forces normal employees to turn a blind eye towards corporate crime that happens right under their noses. People fear for themselves, their jobs and their families. So when they see that they do not get any protection for exposing crime, they refrain from reporting fraud or corruption. In a country like India which ranks 94 out of 176 countries in the 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index, created by Transparency International [ 5 ], this definitely does not augur well for our future.
7.0 THE PROCESS OF WHISTLE BLOWING The process of whistle blowing essentially has five basic steps as are depicted in the Figure below:( Figure1)
8.0 FAMOUS CORPORATE WHISTLE BLOWERS
A hero of the present times, Julian Assange, founder and editor-in-chief of Wiki Leaks has more than 1.2 million individual leaks to his name.
W. Mark Felt also known as Deep Throat remains the most famous whistle blower of all times. Back in 1972, he discovered President Nixon ' s illegal involvement in the dealings at the Watergate Hotel. He leaked this to the Washington Post and this subsequently led to the resignation of President Nixon and arrest of the then White House Chief of Staff.
Another famous whistle blower is Linda Tripp who leaked to the press that Monica Lewinsky had committed a perjury in concealing her relationship with President Bill Clinton.
In the corporate sector, Sherron Watkins, the former vice president of Enron reported the illegal fraudulent accounting practices in her company.
And more famously we all know the story of Cynthia Cooper, former Vice President of Internal Audit at WorldCom who exposed the hundreds of false accounting entries in the company ' s financial statements. Her book ' Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistle blower ' chronicles the struggle she underwent to expose this massive fraud.[ 6 ]
Concern raised by employee( 1)
Concern communicated to Ombudsperson( 2)
Stop proceedings( 4)
Inital enquiry( 3) Go to( 4) if concern is frivolous Go to( 5) if concern is genuine
Set up an enquiry team and conduct further investigations( 5)
Figure1
Take appropriate action against the wrong doer.( 6)
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