Attorney Says Draft Whistleblower Legislation Not Enough

Darrell Bradley

But according to Bradley, the whistleblower act on its own does not have teeth. He says that there is need for strengthening of the investigative bodies as well as the inclusion of other pieces of legislation to recover misappropriated assets or monies. 

Darrell Bradley, Attorney-at-law

“Anti-corruption legislation is not about one piece of legislation; it is about an array of legislation that really feeds into one another. So that if there is whistle-blowing activity, there has to be a strong investigation arm and then there also has to be some legislation or mechanism for you to recover the proceeds of illicit gain. Arguably one of the things that the bill does is that it doesn’t really advance that argument. You need more in terms of the legislation to make it effective and you need a system of legislation including institutional support to the mechanisms – the investigating arms of the police, the F.I.U., the integrity commission. One of the things that was reported when I was President of the Senate is that there are very little forensic auditors, there are very little legal experts for these investigating offices – they are not budgeted for. So one of the things that you are going to find out is if we pass whistleblower’s legislation, it may not really have an effect in reducing corruption because the institutional mechanisms are not there to redress against corruption and this is only one piece of legislation among a package of legislation that needs to be passed so that we really have the issue of governmental action being vetted appropriately and you have a system of accountability and transparency laws. This alone will not do it.”