Whistle-Blowing Legislation Not Enough
During the second sitting of the Select Committee on the Integrity in Public Life Bill, Integrity Group Barbados was invited to participate in a consultative capacity. This allowed the group to directly address the government and the nation on what we determined were some of the inadequacies of the bill. As a group, we also conveyed that the eventual success of this bill would be dependent upon additional pieces of legislation. The case was therefore made that the effectiveness of the whistle-blowing provisions will be conditioned on whether there is high degree of transparency in government’s operations.
Whistle-blowers need access to information
Ensuring a high degree of transparency will require supplementary pieces of legislation such as a Freedom of Information Act. A FOIA would be a useful addition as there are principled and practical relationships between whistle-blowing arrangements and access to information. Ultimately, the access to information that a FOIA can provide allows potential whistle-blowers the opportunity to uncover wrongdoings that can form the basis of their disclosure. Since the aim of whistle-blowing is for employees to step forward when faced with suspicions of wrongdoing, access to information can be pivotal to substantiating these suspicions.
FOIA’s legally validate whistle-blowers’ lawful ability to have this access, as well as the public’s right to know what has been uncovered. These acts provide access to documentation that could support an employee’s allegations. Possessing these supportive documents can increase the likelihood that whistle-blowers are willing to act as these documents can be or lead to the smoking gun. This is an important consideration since when individuals suspect wrongdoings and want to disclose, employers can frustrate these attempts by concealing documents that otherwise would be accessible with a FOIA. The absence of a FOIA therefore presents challenges that can undermine the success of whistle-blowing provisions.
Breaking the culture of secrecy
Additional challenges that should also be of concern are confidentiality, secrecy and defamatory laws that are now common-placed in Barbados. Guidelines for public sector employees that speak to oaths of secrecy; Barbados’ Data Protection Act that strictly regulates obtaining and disclosing personal information; the Standing Orders of Parliament that prevents the premature publication of evidence before the report has been presented; the Barbados Defamation Act where liability for criminal libel extends to materials published, are all statutes that perpetuate a culture of secrecy in the public sector and other wise. These undoubtedly create tensions, as the desire for citizens to come forward is inhibited by a culture of fear and silence. Relieving the tensions that prevent potential collaborators of justice from disclosing wrongdoings requires that Barbados fine-tune its laws so that they are synced with the principles of openness and expression.
Protection of whistle-blowers
Whistle-blowing legislation would be a new addition to Barbados’ legal framework and its success is dependent on robust provisions. Ultimately, this requires that whistle-blowers are adequately protected within the law. Under the Integrity in Public Life bill, these protective measures are inadequate. The bill does not explicitly speak to matters of confidentiality that is necessary to protect whistle-blowers from retaliation for their disclosure. Immunity for whistle-blowers is also absent in the bill. However immunity can be useful as it provides the opportunity for individuals who have been perpetrators of wrongdoing and have valuable information to be granted legal protections for disclosure. These additions can improve the bill’s effectiveness as they seek to ensure that potential whistle-bowers feel at ease when coming forward.
Select Committee should lead to changes
The Select Committee signals government’s intent to improve the Integrity in Public Life bill and by extension the whistle-blowing provisions. However, without supplementary pieces of legislation, the effects of whistle-blowing provisions are unlikely to be impactful. Therefore, the Committee should produce a final document that is reflective of its consultative efforts as well as recommend the provision of supportive legislation that can improve the bill’s effectiveness.