Fighting fraud and corruption

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: Does Singapore need a universal whistleblower protection law?

John Bittleston Founder and Chair Terrific Mentors International Pte Ltd

TOO much law leads to circumvention and abuse. Better that companies and business practices in general set a culture of protecting whistleblowers as a matter of ethical behaviour. However, financial power, ingrained traditions of loyalty and the fear of ostracisation are powerful weapons in the hands of the bully. Perhaps in 20 years' time, we can remove such a law. For now, we need it.

Kwek Chin Yong Associate MD, Business Intelligence and Investigations Kroll

STRONG whistleblower protections are necessary in any effective anti-fraud regime. As job security is invariably a key concern, having laws to govern this will help encourage whistleblowers to co-operate. In the US, there are even rewards to incentivise whistleblowing. Singapore also recognises the importance of incentivising whistleblower cooperation and have taken steps to do so. For example, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) offers monetary rewards to whistleblowers for tax evasion cases of up to S$100,000 or 15 per cent of tax recovered. The Prevention of Corruption Act also allows for anonymised whistleblowing for corruption cases. However, these measures are piecemeal - only applying to specific areas and not fraud in general. It would be encouraging to see a universal whistleblower framework implemented, on…

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