100 Reporters: Leaked Survey Shows Corners of Discontent at World Bank
An internal survey of 13,000 employees at the World Bank details that 24 percent fear retaliation if they blow the whistle. That number increases to 41 percent when only surveying employees in the Bank’s anti-corruption office (the Integrity Vice Presidency). Further, the results of the survey (which the Bank did not release publicly) show that “fear of retaliation for reporting wrongdoing generally runs strongest at bank headquarters in Washington.”
Key Quote: Broadly, the survey of more than 13,000 employees showed a general disconnect between rank-and-file and senior leadership, with many perceiving favoritism in promotions, a lack of “openness and trust” with top brass and disharmony among senior managers as the bank undergoes a broad restructuring.
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In addition to showing skepticism of internal whistleblower policies, 49 percent of employees at the Integrity Vice Presidency denied that senior management created “a culture of openness and trust” or that they understood the direction in which management were leading the bank. And 57 percent rejected the proposition that management acted “as a unified leadership team.”
UPI: Thomas Drake on How Blowing the Whistle is Even Harder Now
National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Tom Drake sat down for an interview and gave advice to future potential intelligence agency whistleblowers. He touched on the changing nature of whistleblowing, Edward Snowden, and the inherent threats that face insiders who wish to speak out. Drake also expressed his disappointment in the USA Freedom Act, an NSA-reform bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee yesterday.
Key Quote: UPI: Outrage over the Snowden revelations has actually resulted in a real push for legislation. Do you see new laws, such as the USA Freedom Act that was unanimously passed out of committee Wednesday, fixing the problem?
Drake: It’s totally compromised. I don’t support it. And I feared this would happen. You’ve got this bad cop, good cop, where the White House has their proposal, and essentially what’s happening now is that because you have so many sponsors for the USA Freedom Act, that now those White House recommendations are being incorporated into the Freedom Act because it has a much stronger chance of passing. Meanwhile, you hold up as a straw man the [competing legislation] that [Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Dutch] Ruppersberger and [Chairman Mike] Rogers want.
It ends up basically outsourcing mass surveillance strategy; we’ll just shift the means of production. Productions shifts to the telcos and the telecoms. We don’t hold [metadata], we don’t create it or manipulate it, we have access to it.
So where’s the reform? That’s faux reform; that’s kabuki dance reform. That’s shadow reform.
ABC (Australia): Australia Debates ‘Ag Gag’ Laws
Politicians in Australia have expressed support for legislation similar to anti-whistleblower Ag Gag laws in the United States, worrying advocates who oppose the measures that criminalize individuals who record undercover video to expose wrongdoing at industrial farms. Writer and vocal Ag Gag opponent Will Potter is touring Australia to speak about the rise and threat of Ag Gag. GAP’s Food Integrity Campaign has strongly opposed the anti-whistleblower bills since they started being introduced in the U.S. in recent years.
News Channel 5 (Tennessee): Poll Worker Turned Whistleblower Raises Serious Questions After Election
A former poll worker from a Tennessee county filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that an election commission failed to maintain adequate voter records or “supervise temporary employees who did most of the data entry during elections.”
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.