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THE
Philippines may be one of the most corrupt countries in
the world, but then, it is also one of the top five
countries that protects whistle blowers—at least in the
private sector.
A study
by global accountancy firm Grant Thornton International,
released by its local partner Punongbayan & Araullo
(P&A), said 67 percent of Filipino enterprises have
embedded formal measures to accommodate whistle blowers,
way above the global average of 45 percent.
The
Philippines is the only Asian country to make it to the
top five ahead of Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which
placed 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively.
Regionally, East Asia has the lowest average at 29
percent, Latin America the highest at 68 percent,
North America 56 percent and
Europe
42 percent.
Brazil
emerged as the country with the most number of
businesses supporting whistle blowers at 85 percent,
followed by Denmark (71 percent), Sweden (71 percent)
and Botswana (69 percent).
“Many
business leaders in the Philippines are aware of the
benefits of having formal whistle-blowing policies in
place to detect not only business frauds but violations
of company regulations by employees,” said Juancho
Robles, P&A’s risk-management partner. He said
sufficient training is still needed to increase employee
awareness of the presence of such policies in a company.
Greg
Navarro, P&A’s managing partner and CEO, said the
televised public hearings conducted by Congress
featuring whistle blowers’ testimonies helped businesses
and the public at large to realize that it is a good
practice to have some policies and procedures in place
that encourage and protect whistle blowers.
“Top-level fraud and shenanigans are usually left
undetected and could go on for quite sometime as the
perpetrators are in positions of power and influence
that allow them to cover up their deeds.
“In most
instances, such fraud is only discovered because of
informers, or whistle blowers, as we know them today,”
he said.
Navarro
added the focus on good corporate governance and high
ethical standards in business since the turn of the
century by regulators, the business community and
society as a whole also helped push the whistle-blowing
agenda to the forefront.
As a
result, he said laws and regulations protecting whistle
blowers are being strengthened, and the stigma attached
to being one is also slowly fading. |
