The American Association of Fiduciary Transparency, which lobbies for the interests and well being of more than 20,000 US financial institutions, has proposed a new rule requiring employees to blow an actual whistle when reporting monetary improprieties.
“Many companies we represent have complained that the current process is too anonymous,” says association president Gina Kasminski. “They say they have no way of knowing who’s actually blowing the whistle.”
The new rule, she says, would not only make it clear who’s doing the blowing, but also what the whistle is being blow about – with one tweet required for offenses under $10,000, and an additional tweet for every $10,000 above that.
“We would also require that companies purchase the whistles for their employees so they don’t incur that expense,” says Kasminski. “Nothing should get in the way of people doing what they believe is the right thing to do.”
Virtually all of her clients would welcome the rule, Kasminski says, and some are already taking steps to comply with it.
“We hadn’t budgeted to purchase any whistles this year,” says CFO Myrna Artmann of Newark’s Third General Funding & Trust. “But we’re in the process of finding the necessary funding, so we can encourage more people to help us keep on our toes.”
Artmann says employees wishing to blow the whistle will simply go to Human Resources, fill out a whistle request form, and choose from either a plastic or metal model.
“And as an added benefit,” she says, “once they’re finished blowing it they get to keep the whistle!”
