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In Our View: When Truth is Exposed

Protecting whistleblowers is essential to open and effective democracy

The Columbian
Published: June 13, 2016, 6:03am

A pair of recent stories reinforce the need to protect those who bring to light malfeasance or waste in governmental operations — colloquially known as whistleblowers.

In one, detailed by the Associated Press, a U.S. Department of Commerce employee named Cristina Jackson explained how her role as a whistleblower led to a six-year legal battle with her employer over performance reviews and a suspension from her job.

She had uncovered and reported how an employee in the department lied his way to a Purple Heart plus thousands of dollars in government benefits. After veteran Darryl Lee Wright asked to convert missed work into paid leave for “emergency” National Guard duty, Jackson checked with Guard officials, who determined that Wright “purposely falsified Washington Military Department orders to defraud his civilian employer.”

Wright also had claimed Social Security disability benefits and secured pay for his sister to be his in-home caregiver, a service she never performed. By 2013, the siblings were bringing in $10,000 a month in benefits.

Wright pleaded guilty to federal charges earlier this year and is scheduled to be sentenced in August. All of which, one would think, would earn Jackson kudos for her role in uncovering and reporting the fraud. But Wright also accused Jackson of violating the Privacy Act, which led to legal wrangling and resulted in the Department of Commerce attempting to downgrade Jackson’s rating — an action she and her lawyers successfully fought. Her employer also has attempted to suspend her from work.

In another story, a recent report from the U.S. Senate criticized the FBI for deficiencies in its whistleblower program. As columnist Joe Davidson of The Washington Post pointed out, “The irony is the FBI relies on informants to fight crime.” Congress is considering legislation that would protect whistleblowers within the agency and make it easier for them to come forward.

When it comes to protecting those who point out inconvenient truths within government agencies, all possible steps should be taken. Such an ethos is relatively new, as whistleblower laws have cropped up over the past three decades or so, but it is essential to an open and effective democracy. The fact is that government agencies frequently have internal problems that those in power would rather sweep under the rug — to the point of retaliating against employees who come forward with information.

In Washington state, improper governmental action is defined as: Gross mismanagement; gross waste of public resources; something that violates state or federal law; or something that presents a danger to public safety or health. As the Secretary of State’s website explains: “The Whistleblower program at the State Auditor’s Office is charged with investigating claims of improper governmental action.”

Such policies can be helpful in private business, but they are crucial in government, which is tasked with being a steward of the people’s money and the public’s safety. In a recent example, Congress has investigated reported attempts to silence an Environmental Protection Agency employee who had worked to expose the lead-in-water crisis in Flint, Mich.

Certainly, whistleblower protection can be abused by employees seeking to divert attention from or garner protection for their own incompetence. But that is the price to be paid for encouraging workers to speak up when they see a problem. Whistleblowing can be an essential source of intelligence in uncovering misdeeds.

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