Whereas the Nigerian government Wednesday approved a draft Bill at the Federal Executive Council meeting to enact a law on Whistleblower Policy, Ghana government has raised the bar to 10 per cent.
Explaining the brain behind the new decision to enact the law, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed averred that findings by the government showed many people have lost confidence on the policy due to there is no law backing it.
Otherwise, the federal government has assessed its six-year old Whistle Blowing Policy with a declaration that the policy has not performed up to expectation. It therefore owned up that the policy that was launched on December 21, 2016 by the Federal Ministry of Finance to encourage people to volunteer information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets and any other form of corruption or theft to the ministry, has lost steam. The policy rewards a whistle blower who provides information about any financial mismanagement or tip about any stolen funds to the ministry’s portal with 2.5 per cent to five per cent from the recovered funds by the federal government.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, made the disclosure yesterday, while speaking with newsmen after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House, Abuja. According to her, FEC approved a draft bill to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by the government.Besides, Ghanaian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, says he is seeking to boost the Whistleblowers Act, 2006 (Act 720) by introducing a reward system for whistleblowers.
“The proposed amendment which seeks to operationalise the Whistleblowers Fund, by ensuring a dedication of thirty per cent of all revenue, accruing from cases conducted on the strength of a whistleblower’s activity is paid into the fund.
Ten (10) percent of the income directly generated by the whistleblower’s efforts which were paid to the whistleblower, was approved by Cabinet last week and would be laid in Parliament before the end of the year,” he said.
The Minister of Justice said this at a public forum to mark International Human Rights Day (2022) held at the British Council in Accra.
The occasion was on the theme: The State of Human Rights in Ghana: Progress, Challenges, and the Way forward.
Mr Dame recalled that a Technical Committee to draft Standard Operating Procedures for Whistleblowers Protection was launched in Ghana in August 2022.
He explained that the Technical Committee’s work would culminate in a set of rules which would boost the Whistleblowers regime in the country.
