With material weakness and whistleblowers identified as the two key issues in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, it's interesting to read this report in Inc.com about how some companies are using software and setting up call centres that encourage insiders to give tip-offs, anonymously and painlessly.
As the piece points out, the flipside is the claim from vendors that only 3 per cent of tip offs point to something serious. But for employees to take it seriously, every disclosure would need to be followed up, and that means one thing: the system needs to be carefully managed.
Companies are kidding themselves if they think just installing software or setting up a call centre is going to be the answer.
As the experience of people reporting US government abuse or fraud has shown, the whistleblower still risks career suicide, or at the very least being labelled a troublemaker. That's what happens when you challenge power structures. Lawyers claim the system rubber-stamps retaliation. If the US Government is supposed to set an example for corporations, we have a real problem.
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