From Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
The Federal Government has warned corporate entities in the country to put in place safety nets for would-be whistle blowers.
This, it said, would entrench an effective whistle-blowing framework for reporting any illegal or unethical behaviour, minimise companies’ exposure and prevent recurrence.
The warning is contained in the Federal Government’s recently launched Code of Corporate Governance (CCG) which states that, “the board should ensure that no whistle-blower is subjected to any detriment on the grounds that he has made a disclosure. Where a whistle-blower has been subjected to any detriment, he may present a complaint to the board and/or regulators. A whistle-blower who has suffered any detriment by reason of disclosure may be entitled to compensation and/or reinstatement as appropriate.”
The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) stipulates in its ‘Recommended Practices’ that, “the board should establish a whistle-blowing framework to encourage stakeholders to bring unethical conduct and violations of laws and regulations to the attention of an internal and/or external authority so that action can be taken to verify the allegation and apply appropriate sanctions or take remedial action to correct any harm done. This framework should be known to employees and external stakeholders.
“The board should ensure the existence of a whistle-blowing mechanism that is reliable, accessible and guarantees the anonymity of the whistle-blower, and that all disclosures resulting from whistle-blowing are treated in a confidential manner. The identity of the whistle-blower should be kept confidential.
“The board should accord priority to the effectiveness of the whistle-blowing mechanism and continually affirm publicly, its support for and commitment to the company’s whistle-blower protection mechanism.
“The team responsible for managing disclosures obtained through the whistle-blowing mechanism should: ‘Review reported cases and bring them to the notice of the committee responsible for audit; provide the committee responsible for audit with a summary of reported cases, cases investigated, the process of investigation and the results of the investigations”.
The FRC stressed that “A whistle-blower can disclose any information related to a violation or suspected violation of any laws, internal policies, etc. connected with the business of the Company, its employees or stakeholders.”