I investigated the 2009 Texas Whistleblower case concerning registered nurses Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle, and Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr.. Mitchell and Galle anonymously reported their concerns to the Texas Medical Board, on the standards of care provided, at Winkler County Memorial Hospital and the Winkler County Rural Health Clinic, by physician Dr. Arafiles. The letter reported that Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr. was promoting his herbal supplements by encouraging his patients to purchase them and that he had performed a procedure on a patient in their home using the hospital's supplies. In August of 2009, Galle and Mitchell decided to settle their civil lawsuit against Dr. Arafiles and the federal lawsuit, without acknowledging liability,…
In 1985, a joint task force of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI was created to study and recommend ways to improve the quality of information contained in the UCR (UCR Study Task Force, 1985). This resulted in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the first collection of data began in 1991. Under NIBRS, participating law enforcement authorities provide offense and arrest data on 22 broad categories of crime covering 46 offenses while providing only arrest information on 11 other offenses (Bohm and Haley, 2012). The advantages of the NIBRS as compared to the UCR is that the NIBRS provides more data on each crime, making it possible to examine crimes in much more detail.…
Start with the institution of special prosecutors, or, as they are now called, independent counsel. The 1978 Ethics in Government Act created a triple whammy for executive branch officials who crossed powerful congressmen. First, the law requires the appointment of independent counsel once allegations are made-allegations often made by congressmen and their staffs-that cannot be disproven within ninety days by an attorney general explicitly denied the power of subpoena or other information-gathering techniques! Second, once independent counsel is appointed, as we have seen, no matter how weak the evidence, there goes the political life of that official. After investigations by an independent counsel and an indictment in Bronx, New York, Raymond…
Whistleblowing: Although bureaucratic lore commonly holds that uncovering unlawful waste, fraud, or abuse will result in chilling isolation, impossible job transfers, or other cruel and unusual forms of recrimination, there are still ways to fight back. There are means with which public servants can force a change in an organization’s course without being forced out of a job (Holzer & Schwester, 2011). As the Public Accountability Committee members do not have any direct city influence, the committee could be fair and impartial in their decision-making…
The law of Sarbanes-Oxley law of whistleblowers has a provision for protecting corporate whistleblowers for giving information about all sorts of frauds such as fraud in security, shareholder, banking fraud, an abuse of any SEC decree or mailing fraud. Such owes to the condition that the employee must not display in any way that an actual violation ensued provided the employee rationally is confident that the desecration is likely to occur (Moberly,…
As the commander in chief of the armed forces, the US president has the power to call all into service the state units of the National Guard. This means that the president can call on the army to the war against another country even when the congress has not approved the war. In case the president uses that power and declare a war against another country for personal/unjustified reasons, it would be unethical. Another example can be taken from the attorney general. The attorney general is the chief of the legal officer of the state.…
6. When Smittz was asked why he called Councilmember Lincoln and informed him, he indicated he didn’t know how the whole “whistleblower process” worked but he thought telling an elected official would get the ball rolling. Smittz should have referred to the City of San Jose Whistleblower Hotline and not have contacted Councilmember Lincoln. The Whistleblower Hotline’s purpose to provide the public and employees with an opportunity to express concerns such as: theft of City resources; record falsification, including timecards; misuse of City equipment or property; misuse or waste of City resources, including government funds; and improper activities by City officials, employees, and contractors. There are various ways to express concerns by calling, email, and regular mail.…
"Whistleblowing portrays the move made by a representative who informs outside powers that the business is infringing upon a law, lead, or control or is generally representing an immediate danger to the security, well-being, or welfare of people in general. Workers who whistleblow on their managers are protected under U.S. law. Basically, griping to somebody inside the organization is not whistleblowing and leaves the representative without insurance of the whistleblowing laws." Note that by the meaning of whistleblowing is grumbling to somebody inside the organization; therefore, this is not considered whistleblowing. Even though Mr. Boisjoly 's acts, before the catastrophe happened, to get Thiokol administration to follow up on the O-rings issue, that is not considered whistleblowing.…
Whistleblowing has been a topic of discussion in business for over a hundred years. While there are federally mandated regulations in place to protect whistleblowers, some still argue that whistleblowing is wrong. The main argument of these naysayers, like Norman Bowie and Sissela Bok, is that whistleblowing is an act of disloyalty to the company. In Ronald Duska’s article Whistleblowing II, he takes opposition to this stance. Throughout his article he makes three main points: employees have no obligation to remain loyal to a company, the primary function of business is profit, and the analogy between business and team is erroneous.…
Bureau of Prisons Hiring Practices The Bureau of Prisons has a fair and ethical hiring practice. Employees are hired based on merit and not on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, membership in employee 's organization, sexual orientation, age, and physical disability. www.bop.gov (2014). Presidential mandate in 2009 states that employees with a veteran’s preference status are considered a preference eligible candidate. Unethical Practices to Avoid The Bureau of Prisons takes several steps to ensure that unethical hiring practices for its employees does not happen.…
This commitment makes it clear that employees can do so without fear of backlashes. The whistleblowing policy is proposed to urge and empower workers to raise such…
Clarity regarding Section 3730(h) essential to encourage whistleblowers. The False Claims Act has gained a lot of importance in building a sense of accountability and early detection of fraud. Although the statute has had quite an impact in curbing fraud and generating false claim recoveries in billions of dollars, the ambiguity with regards to the scope of protection offered to the whistleblowers under Section 3730(h) of the False Claims Act is a glaring drawback. Whistleblowers are faced with the fear of loss of employment, social seclusion, being blacklisted, and being closely monitored.…
Ethics have a major impact in the way companies hire and fire employees. Today, more than ever, companies are susceptible to lawsuits for a myriad of reasons from wrongful termination to policy violation to violating equal employment rights. Many of these organizations spend years entangled in the legal system and accumulate thousands of dollars in legal fees. More often than not, many are bankrupt as a result while others downsize and pay out millions to victims.…
This is a serious injustice. The espionage act is currently too broad and allows for the prosecution of individuals who act in the interest of the United States; therefore, it is imperative that the Espionage Act of 1917 be amended to include a whistleblower clause. Although the original purpose of the act was legitimate, from the very beginning the Espionage Act has been used to silence critics of the state. Before its official entry into World War I, the United States was already fighting the Germans. Pro-…
This was met when David discuss this with his superiors, like Diane and Phil, about the situation. Thirdly, they exhaust the channels available within their organization after getting no satisfaction from their superiors. This was met when Diane and Phil denied David’s request of upgrading the water treatment plant when he heard of the anticipated growth in production and had no one else to go to. Under these circumstances, whistleblowing is morally…