Whistleblowing Research Articles

The Deterrence Effects of Tax Whistleblower Laws: Evidence from New York’s False Claims Acts

In this study, we provide evidence on the effects of state tax whistleblower laws. We exploit a novel 2010 amendment to New York’s False Claims Acts (FCA) that explicitly extended whistleblower incentives to corporate income tax whistleblowers. We identify treated firms (firms exposed to New York’s FCA) using establishment-level data and descriptive analyses. Using a sample of firms exposed to New York and neighboring states, we find evidence that New York’s FCA reduced state tax avoidance. In cross-sectional tests, we find that effects are increasing in firms that grant fewer employee stock options and industry regulation, consistent with deterrence increasing in employee and regulator monitoring. We also find evidence that New York’s FCA deterred federal tax avoidance, consistent with positive vertical tax externalities. Next, we focus on particular tax strategies and find evidence of a reduced probability of Double Irish tax structures, reduced relationships to tax planning banks, reduced use of special purpose vehicles, and reduced outbound tax-motivated income shifting. We also find evidence that firms with the lowest (highest) cost of relocation (1) reduced (did not change) establishment counts in New York but (2) did not change (reduced) state tax avoidance. Finally, we disentangle general ex ante deterrence from ex ante peer deterrence using hand-collected New York tax whistleblower press releases from the Attorney General. We find evidence of both types of deterrence. Overall, this study provides policy-relevant evidence on the deterrence effects of tax whistleblower laws. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting. Funding: Y. Lee acknowledges financial support from the College of Business at California State University, Long Beach. S. Ng acknowledges financial support from Singapore Management University. T. Shevlin acknowledges financial support from the University of California, Irvine [the Paul Merage Chair and the Merage School of Business]. A. Venkat acknowledges financial support from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.02999 .

Examining the relationship between Empowering leadership and Whistle Blowing: Testing a Moderated Mediated Model

The purpose of the present study examines the behaviour of media channels employees in Pakistan, test a theory , raise internal voice against worng doing with the partnership of empowering leadership.Pyschological empowerment reasoning the existence relationship between EL,IW, and an interactive variable. This research adopted cross-sectional research design, which is a design type under quantitative approach. In current study, convenience sampling technique was used. The study method forms use of tools such as distributed questionnaires with reply rate 81.7%, and .16 % missing values. The whole survey contains a total number of 41 scaled items that were adapted to measure the constructs of the study. The outcomes backing the supportive relationship of empowering leadership and internal whistleblowing in Pakistan's backgrounds.The research finding sustenance the objective of the study that employees of media channel do internal whistleblow against wrongdoing when they got empowered from their leaders, in the existence of psychological empowerment.The results displays the significant level of connection between motivating management power sharing and whistleblowing with the p-value support theory.The results of the assumption proved that PE and IW have important positive relationships.The lower and upper limits respectly indicated by the unstandardized regression coefficient are both positive results and no null prevails the indirect effect of the relationship of EL and IW, by PE supported proposition.The beta value provides evidendence relationship of psychological empowerment and whistleblowing is modified by psychological ownership.This study provides media groups with insights into how empowering leadership, Psychological empowerment, escalates internal whistleblowing reporting channels, in order to ensure that a framework is implemented so that company progress can be achieved.

The role of isiZulu communal notifications in sustaining the community-orientated lifestyle

The dissemination of communal notifications across the proximally distant homesteads in a rural area is not an easy practice. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the forms of communal notifications and their role in sustaining the community-orientated lifestyle in an isiZulu-speaking rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative research method which employed face-to-face interviews, in isiZulu, that involved 16 participants. The data revealed the prevalence of these forms of communal notifications: social occasion-related notifications, death-related notifications, izimbizo (open meetings)-related notifications, notifications instructing the community dwellers to clear footpaths, politics-related notifications, school meeting notifications, livestock or pet immunisation notifications, and land tilling-related notifications. The study maintained that the custodians who pronounce these notifications to the community employ strategies that aid their effective dissemination. Such strategies involve landscape usage, social occasion platform usage, whistle or horn blowing, loud shouting and the sending of messengers. Importantly, the study established that the communal notifications help inculcate the spirit of ubuntu or humanness among the community dwellers hence sustaining the community-orientated lifestyle, which finds expression in isiZulu.

Whistle Blowing A Necessity

Whistle Blowing A Necessity

Miracle or Mirage? A Measurement Study of NFT Rug Pulls

NFT rug pull is one of the most prominent type of NFT scam, whose definition is that the developers of an NFT project abandon it and run away with investors' funds. Although they have drawn attention from our community, to the best of our knowledge, the NFT rug pulls have not been systematically measured. To fill the void, this paper presents the first in-depth measurement study of NFT rug pulls. Specifically, we first compile a list of 253 known NFT rug pulls as our initial confirmed rug pulls (i.e., ground truth), based on which we perform a pilot study, highlighting the key symptoms of NFT rug pulls. Then, we design an effective rule-based detector to measure the prevalence of NFT rug pulls in the ecosystem. We have labelled 7,487 happened NFT rug pull projects which were not revealed by our community. To eliminate the potential damage brought by rug pull scams, we take a step further towards designing a real-time prediction model to proactively identify the potential rug pull projects in an early stage ahead of the scam happens. We have implemented a prototype system, and deployed it in the real-world setting for over 6 months. Our system has raised alarms for 5,557 new NFT projects, which works as a whistle blower that pinpoints rug pull scams timely, thus mitigating the impacts.

Individual Factor Predictor and Organizational Factor Predictor to Detect Potential Corrupt Behaviour

KPK known as an institution that eradicates corruption, they receive reports of indications of corruption and conducts arrest operations (OTT) to be followed. This shows that corruption occurs every day, and this act of corruption will not be able to be eradicated if it only relies on KPK. Efforts are needed from each individual organization in preventing corruption from occurring. This research examines individual factors (flexing, life style and love of money) and organizational factors (internal control, whistle blowing, anti-fraud awareness, law enforcement and leadership style) which are expected to be predictors of someone behaving corruptly. This research using quantitative approach and the data was collected using a questionnaire which Indonesian employees as a respondents. After testing, it was found that flexing, lifestyle, love of money, internal control, whistleblowing and anti-fraud awareness were able to become predictive factors for someone to commit corruption. Thus, based on the results of this research, organizations can focus on designing policies and training / coaching programs to prevent corrupt behavior in employees.

Kebijakan Hukum Terhadap Perlindungan WHITSLE BLOWER Pada Tindak Pidana Pencucian Uang

Law enforcement against money laundering crimes currently refers to the provisions of Law Number 8 of 2010 concerning Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering Crimes (UU No. 8/2010 concerning PP-TPPU), which is the legal basis (umbrella law) for enforcers law in preventing and eradicating criminal acts of money laundering. Regarding reporting parties who are burdened with the obligation to report suspicious financial transactions to PPATK, this has been explicitly stipulated in the provisions of Article 17 of Law no. 8/2010 concerning PP-TPPU, where the parties consist of Financial Services Providers and Goods/Services Providers. There are inconsistencies in the formulation of the articles of Law no. 8/2010 concerning PP-TPPU and PP no. 43/2015 as an implementing regulation, will of course have implications for the legal certainty of protection for whistleblowers, which will have an impact on the implementation of reporting not being optimal and ultimately will also have an impact on efforts to prevent and eradicate money laundering crimes. This research is normative research. The research was carried out by researching the literature using a statute approach. The ideal regulation which is more legal and just, is to include several matters relating to whistleblowers in the Special Law on Whistleblowers or the revision of Law no. 31/2014 concerning PSK, namely: regarding information criteria, whistleblower rights, report substance, reporting system, technical protection and rewards for whistleblowers. Barriers to protection for whistleblowers of money laundering crimes, consisting of juridical factors and law enforcement factors . Juridical factors, protection of whistleblowers have not been clearly regulated in Law no. 31/2014 concerning prostitutes. Meanwhile, as a law enforcement factor, there are still differences in perception between law enforcers who are members of the criminal justice system and whistle blowers.

Aspects of occupational safety: a survey among European cancer nurses

PurposeNurses are particularly at risk for occupational exposure to hazardous cancer drugs, risking both acute and chronic health effects. Knowledge on the implemented safety precautions into minimizing these risks is limited. MethodsThe European Cancer Nursing Index (ECNI) was developed by the European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) to illustrate the development and status of this profession. In this study, anonymous online survey data on occupational safety reported by European cancer nurses as part of the ECNI 2022, was analysed. ResultsA total of 630 cancer nurses from 29 countries responded to the survey. A majority reported that written guidelines (n = 553, 88%) on safe handling and administration of hazardous drugs, personal protection equipment (PPE) and cytotoxic spillage kits (n = 514, 82%) were available at their workplaces. 130 (21%) nurses reported that wipe testing to assess any residual hazardous drugs on workplace surfaces were conducted systematically at their workplaces. 185 (29%) nurses reported that nurses sometimes or always continued with their regular tasks (including handling hazardous cancer drugs) during pregnancy and breast feeding. 185 (29%) also responded that nurses at their workplaces did not receive an introductory education program before handling hazardous drugs. In total, 346 (55%) of the nurses reported that their workplace had a freedom to speak-up guardian or whistle blower policy for members of staff. ConclusionsEven if most nurses report that there are safety routines in place at their workplaces, the results reveal several serious occupational risks for European nurses handling hazardous cancer drugs. Actions are needed to improve and optimize occupational safety for nursing staff.

The effect of brainstorming, auditor ethics, and whistleblowers on audit opinions of government financial reports: The moderating role of management support

This research aims to explore the impact of brainstorming (BR), auditor ethics (AE), and whistleblowers (WH) on audit opinions (AO). It also aims to assess the moderating role of management support (MS) in these relationships. The population of this study was 166 auditors from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK-Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan) spread across the Papua region of Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The findings show that there is a significant influence of brainstorming and auditor ethics on audit opinion, but whistleblowers do not influence audit opinion. In addition, management support moderates the influence of auditor ethics but not brainstorming and whistleblowers. Management that supports auditor ethics strengthens the positive effect of auditor ethics on audit opinions, ensuring that auditors can operate independently and objectively. However, the findings demonstrate that management support is unable to control the impact of brainstorming and whistleblowing on audit opinion, which is a result of other factors that are more important in influencing audit results. This research suggests that effective organizational management is crucial for maintaining auditor ethics and enhancing auditor independence in delivering unbiased audit opinions. Therefore, organizations must pay more attention to the role and support of management in creating a culture that supports integrity and ethics in the audit process.

스웨덴 경찰의 부패통제 시스템에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine the feature and implication of the control system of sweden police. The characteristic of the Swedish police's corruption control system is the balance between internal and external control devices. To summarize, first, A committee-centered decision-making structure prevents centralization of authority. Second, the Special Investigation Department of the National Police Agency maintains its fairness by appointing the head of the Swedish Prime Minister, ensuring independence of work, and exercising special authority to investigate corruption in specific public officials, including police officials. Third, Separate Public Prosecution Office and the National Anti-Corruption Unit are placed directly under the Minister of Justice and have the authority to investigate and prosecute corruption cases of specific public officials, including police officials. In particular, Separate Public Prosecution Office independently exercises the authority to investigate the legitimacy of police use of weapons. Fourth, prevent corruption of public funds by reviewing in advance the appropriateness of police budget use. Fifth, all decision-making processes related to police work and the exercise of police power are disclosed to the public. Sixth. It has a recruitment structure that hires qualified people with the character and ethics of a police officer. In addition, efforts are made to exclude corruption cartels and a culture of silence in police organizations by providing strong identity protection for whistle blowers.

Analysis of Green Accounting and Good Corporate Governance with Internal Audit Quality as a Moderating Variable on the Sustainability of Agribusiness Companies Listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2020-2022

This study aims to determine and obtain empirical evidence about the effect of the Green Accounting mechanism, Good Corporate Governance with Internal Audit Quality on the disclosure of Sustainability of agribusiness companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2020-2022. The Internal Audit Quality mechanism is assessed through education and training, experience in public accounting firms, and the application of the whistle blowing system. The Good Corporate Governance mechanism is assessed through managerial ownership, institutional ownership, and independent commissioners. Green Accounting measurement is based on the Public Disclosure Program for Environmental Compliance (PROPER) which is seen from the company's annual report and sustainability report. The samples that became the object of this research were all agribusiness companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2020-2022 by meeting the predetermined criteria. The total research sample for three years of observation was 132 samples, using purposive sampling method. Data analysis was carried out using multiple linear regression methods. The results of this study indicate that Green Accounting have an effect on Sustainability Diclosure and Good Corporate Governance with Internal Audit Quality doesn’t have an effect on Sustainability disclosure.

Upholding Integrity: An Examination of Kenya's Whistleblower Law and Protection

Upholding Integrity: An Examination of Kenya's Whistleblower Law and Protection

Advocacy in a Collapsing Public Healthcare Sector

Abstract The last 15 years have seen a decline in public health services with poor performance and outcomes while the disease burden has increased. Many South African healthcare workers, whilst working in the public sector, are increasingly exposed to deteriorating conditions in which they work and are often witnesses to poor practices and suboptimal treatment. A feeling of futility adds to the burden of moral injury caused by these circumstances. South Africa has a tradition of muzzling healthcare workers who speak up and expose any malpractice, but this should not deter us from performing due diligence on our patients’ care. We need to find innovative ways of documenting and reporting health delivery deficiencies, holding people to account, and if the issues are not addressed, following them up with protected disclosure to an appropriate authority.

Miracle or Mirage? A Measurement Study of NFT Rug Pulls

NFT rug pull is one of the most prominent type of NFT scam, whose definition is that the developers of an NFT project abandon it and run away with investors' funds. Although they have drawn attention from our community, to the best of our knowledge, the NFT rug pulls have not been systematically measured. To fill the void, this paper presents the first in-depth measurement study of NFT rug pulls. Specifically, we first compile a list of 253 known NFT rug pulls as our initial confirmed rug pulls (i.e., ground truth), based on which we perform a pilot study, highlighting the key symptoms of NFT rug pulls. Then, we design an effective rule-based detector to measure the prevalence of NFT rug pulls in the ecosystem. We have labelled 7,487 happened NFT rug pull projects which were not revealed by our community. To eliminate the potential damage brought by rug pull scams, we take a step further towards designing a real-time prediction model to proactively identify the potential rug pull projects in an early stage ahead of the scam happens. We have implemented a prototype system, and deployed it in the real-world setting for over 6 months. Our system has raised alarms for 5,557 new NFT projects by the time of this writing, which works as a whistle blower that pinpoints rug pull scams timely, thus mitigating the impacts.

The Legal Framework of Whistleblowers’ Protection in Ukraine and in the Czech Republic

Summary The Directive (EU) no. 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 23rd 2019 on the Protection of Persons Who Report Breaches of Union Law (further ‘the Directive’) was published on November 26th 2019 and went into effect in December of 2019. Considering its importance, the presented article deals with the issue of legal regulation of whistleblowers’ protection in both Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The existing Ukrainian legislation is not lacking certain deficiencies. First of all, there is the need to introduce a broad definition of the term “whistle blower” so that whistleblowers of violations of human rights, environmental standards, food safety and household items, public interests, etc. were also subject to protection. As for the Czech Republic, from an analysis of the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers, it is clear that this Act is obviously a failed result of the Directive’s transposition.

Insider Dealing by Outsiders in the U. S. and EU

692The prohibition of insider dealing has its origins in U. S. law, the structural features of which have also influenced EU insider law. Today the dogmatic approaches of the two insider law systems differ diametrically. Particularly in dealing with investors outside the issuer, so-called outsiders, the two legal systems differ in terms of both the manner and the scope of covered transactions. According to our understanding outsiders are investors who, neither through their position within the issuer nor through the exercise of a profession for the issuer, have a relationship with the issuer that allows privileged access to inside information. We will lay out the differences between EU and U. S. law by reference to the recent decision of a U. S. Court in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v. Panuwat, where the court approved the so-called shadow trading theory of the SEC. Whereas this decision has attracted a lot of attention in the U. S., we argue, that shadow trading is undoubtedly covered by EU insider law due to the broad principle of information parity. However, because of its broad scope EU insider law applies basically to all investors who possess inside information and hence may also prohibit transactions by outsiders which might be useful for capital markets, such as trading by financial analysts or whistle blowers. We will therefore scrutinize whether and how far financial analysts or whistleblowers are privileged by Recital 28 of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), which only applies to research based on publicly available data, but does not specify when information is publicly available.Whereas in regard to outsiders, the EU insider dealing law goes sometimes too far at the substantive level, in enforcement matters it is too restrictive on the other side. This becomes obvious when we look at politicians which are involved in legislation and hence have access to material information for many issuers. In the U. S., the SEC – acting as a driving force in the U. S. when it comes to the enforcement of the insider dealing prohibition – but also the legislator itself have already become active. Against this background, we examine what instruments EU insider law might provide to detect insider dealing by politicians and other outsiders and show that adapting and extending the existing rules may be a feasible way forward.

Understanding Whistleblowing Intention Among Public Sector Employees in the Northern Region of Malaysia: Does Gender Matter?

The objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing whistleblowing intention among public sector employees. This study utilized the Theory of Prosocial Behavior which includes contextual determinants (policy and procedure, training, responsiveness of management, reporting channel, financial reward, seriousness level of wrongdoing) and individual determinants (knowledge, trust) as independent variables while whistle blowing intention is the dependent variable. Additionally, this study also includes gender as a moderating variable in the relationship between the contextual and individual determinants toward whistleblowing intention. The data was collected from 123 public sector employees in the northern region of Malaysia (Perlis, Kedah, Penang) from various ministries via an online survey questionnaire and analyzed using SmartPLS. This study found that there is a significant relationship between all independent variables and whistleblowing intention, except for the responsiveness of management. Additionally, gender was found to be significant in the relationship between several independent variables and whistleblowing intention.

Legal Protection for Corruption Crime Reporters (Whistle Blower) in Bandung High Court Decision Number: 32/PID.TPK/2022/PT BDG

Legal protection for reporting witnesses in criminal acts of corruption is part of and protects human rights, because witnesses in corruption cases are considered community participation to reveal criminal acts that are very detrimental to the state, so that the state has an obligation to protect the human rights of its citizens, will However, many people do not want/reluctant to become witnesses, for the reason that there is no clear legal protection, especially for witnesses reporting criminal acts of corruption. The role of someone who reports actions around them, especially within the agency where they work, or what is known as a whistle blower is very important in efforts to eradicate corruption in Indonesia. Therefore, the whistle blowing system must continue to be improved starting from the rules and implementation. The approach method used in this research is normative juridical research, namely analyzing written law, library materials and document studies are used as the main material while field data through interviews is used as supporting/complementary data. Data Analysis, after all secondary data has been obtained through library research, as well as supporting data from interviews, examination and evaluation are carried out to determine its validity, then the data is grouped into similar data. Qualitative data is interpreted juridically, logically, systematically using deductive and inductive methods. Indonesians are still afraid to become whistle blowers, because there are many risks that must be faced, and are even difficult to avoid. Threats of demotion, suspension, even firing, will occur. In fact, reporting someone related to a corruption case to law enforcement officials could also be dangerous for him. Therefore, it is necessary to provide legal protection for whistle blowers so that people are not afraid to become whistle blowers.

Intermediated corruption under asymmetric punishment

Anecdotal evidence suggests that intermediaries who help citizens and businesses navigate the complexities of government regulatory procedures can also facilitate bribery. Moreover, it has been argued that traditional methods of detecting bribery may be ineffective in the presence of intermediaries. This paper investigates whether asymmetric punishment (viz., punishing bribe taking, but not giving) can reduce bribery when both intermediated as well direct corruption are possible and the complexity of the regulatory process is endogenous. We show that if asymmetric punishment can induce whistle blowing, then a switch from symmetric to asymmetric punishment can result in fewer bribery transactions, a reduction in regulatory complexity, and an increase in clients' gain from regulatory approvals.

Bribery and Public Procurement Performance at Mbarara City, Uganda

The study investigated the effects of bribery on public procurement performance in Uganda with a focus on Mbarara City. Specifically, the study examined how monetary bribery and non-monetary bribery influence public procurement performance at Mbarara City. A cross-sectional design adopting a quantitative approach was applied. Quantitative data was analyzed using inferential statistics (Spearman correlation, coefficient of determination and regression). Qualitative data on the other hand was analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The findings revealed a strong negative influence of bribery on public procurement performance whereby more bribery contributed to poor public procurement performance and less bribery contributed to better public procurement performance. The study recommended that municipal councils should develop mechanisms for strengthening and operationalizing available measures to combat bribery to improve public procurement performance. Such mechanisms may include encouraging whistle blowers, selection of professional and competent members on evaluation committees and reducing the bureaucracy.