A look at what Belgium is doing to support those brave enough to reveal misdoings at their place of work.
As of this year’s World Whistleblower Day, many Belgian companies and public sector organizations have implemented internal whistleblowing channels. Bit by bit, these start to function, although a lot depends on the visibility each organisation gives to its whistleblowing procedures.
Too many companies or public sector organizations receive near to zero alerts, which of course means people either don’t know they can blow the whistle, or they don’t trust that their alert will be dealt with professionally.
To this end, TI Belgium looks forward to the reporting of the federal government on the implementation of its whistleblowing legislation in the public and private sectors, as well as the public consultation it is due to organise by the end of this year.
In this context, the federal Ombudsman and the OECD’s recommendations can serve as important tools to improve our whistleblowing legislation.
Among this advice, it would be easy for Belgian organisations to achieve these three goals:
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- Ensure that all public sector organisations are obliged to have a whistleblowing channel
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- Ensure that employees of organizations with less than 250 employees also have an anonymous whistleblowing channel, as is already the case for larger enterprises
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- Ensure visibility and raise awareness of the protection mechanisms that exist for whistleblowers that are the victim of retaliation
By meeting these easy targets, Belgian organisations will improve its protection of whistleblowers, which would go a long way in improving its own perception of corruption, having fallen to 22nd spot in our Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) this year.
