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Use Automated Business Processes and Business Rules to Support Whistleblowing
The FT has recently commented that "Lawyers say the strengths of using a whistleblower are that those on the "inside" will often have the ability to provide detailed evidence needed by the prosecutor or regulator. Without such information they may not know such an activity has actually occurred in the first place". (Please see: FSA sees whistleblowing activity surge, 2 April 2010.)
Organisations, however, should also consider the value of automated Business Processes and Business Rules, combined with a sophisticated system of Reporting and Analytics, to support their whistleblowing programme. Providing management with information in real time can help to avoid Nick-Leeson type and Shell-style abuses that escalated to intolerable levels because there was no mechanism in place for reporting such abuses to the board and management, thus allowing them to recur.
Digitizing processes itself can act as a deterrent, since employees will know that the system is monitoring the information that they enter into it, as well as flagging and reporting unusual activity that occurs outside of established parameters. This process would make the recurrence of the activity unlikely since the system would immediately reveal the wrongdoer to the company's board and management, allowing them to take immediate remedial action.