Federal employees are increasingly unlikely to disclose corrupt practices out of fear of reprisal, says a report for the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner. “The reality is the workplace culture is dominated by an attitude that no one should ‘rock the boat,’” it said..According to Blacklock's Reporter, federal employees questioned in nine focus groups for the Commissioner complained of “virtue signalling or window dressing” on accountability. The report comes five years after cabinet shelved all-party recommendations to toughen the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to protect whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing..“Participants said their attitude towards whistleblowing in the public service has changed over time,” said the report. “In describing how their attitude has changed, participants described themselves as having ‘become less naïve,’ ‘more pessimistic,’ ‘more cynical,’ ‘more jaded,’ ‘less bright eyed’ and ‘more disillusioned’ about the process of reporting wrongdoing.”.“Some described themselves as having become ‘more reluctant,’ ‘more cautious’ and ‘more skeptical’ about reporting a wrongdoing, or more likely to consider whether something is worth reporting given the negative impact this could have on their career,” wrote researchers..Findings were drawn from questionnaires with employees from unnamed federal departments and agencies. The Integrity Commissioner paid $68,109 for the research by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc..Few participants dismissed suggestions wrongdoing occurred. Employees instead said reprisals were a genuine fear. “Nearly all participants said fear of reprisals for reporting a wrongdoing is a real concern,” said the report..Reprisals ranged from “being shunned by other employees” to reassignment, “increased workload,” “having one’s work increasingly scrutinized,” “being labeled as untrustworthy” or ultimately fired. “It was suggested reprisals are usually not so brazen or blatant as to involve outright termination but that this cannot be excluded as a possibility because reprisals might include looking for reasons to terminate a whistleblower,” said the report..Parliament in 2007 passed the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act granting the Integrity Commissioner broad powers to investigate allegations of reprisal against federal employees who report wrongdoing or corruption. The Commons government operations committee in a 2017 report Strengthening The Protection Of Public Interest recommended numerous reforms after concluding the current law “does not sufficiently protect whistleblowers from reprisal as most of them face significant financial, professional and health-related consequences.”.Cabinet never acted on the recommendations. “The law is nearly entirely dormant,” the International Bar Association wrote in a 2021 report Are Whistleblowing Laws Working?
