Whistleblowers to get cash payouts

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday approved a law enabling the people to blow a whistle on the irregular, illegal and corrupt practices and get 30 percent of the recovered ill-gotten money as reward.

The law called ‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Whistleblower Protection and Vigilance Commission Act, 2016’ was unanimously passed by the house after parliamentary secretary on law Arif Yousaf tabled it.

The law was earlier approved by the house’s select committee.

The law provides protection to the whistleblower which states that “… to protect them (whistleblowers) from the disadvantageous measure, give them rewards for such public interest disclosure and for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto.”

Speaker Asad Qaiser chaired the session.

Clause 12 of the law says “After inquiry, if it has been proved that a whistleblower has rightly disclosed the violation of public interest, shall be rewarded 30 per cent of the recovered amount and certificate appreciation.”

Similarly, the law states that after inquiry, if it has been proved that a whistleblower has lodged frivolous or mala fide complaint, he shall be liable to a fine of 30 percent of the actual amount claimed against a person with rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years.

Provided that the amount of the fine shall be paid to the person against whom the complaint has been made.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Whistleblower Protection and Vigilance Commission will be established under this law. Section four of the law states: “…the commission shall consist of three commissioners, including a chairman, appointed by the government for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for reappointment for a second term.”

The commission has the power to conduct proper and transparent inquiry under this act and made recommendations to the concerned authorities for making action against individual or agencies for violation of public interest under the relevant laws.

Under the law, the inquiry will be completed within 60 days, while the commission has to take decision on the inquiry within 30 days.

The commission will ensure that no whistleblower is victimized by disadvantageous measures or otherwise merely on the ground that such whistleblower had made a public interest disclosure or rendered assistance in inquiry under this act.

According to the law, any person, agency or government department who willfully does not comply with the directions of the commission would be liable to a fine not less than Rs50, 000 and not more than Rs200,000.

Earlier, speaking on a point of order, parliamentary leader of the ANP Sardar Hussain Babak opposed the law, saying if whistleblowers inform the government about any wrongdoing, then what the anti-corruption bodies would do.

He said the new law actually showed the government’s mistrust in the Ehtesab Commission, anti-corruption establishment and National Accountability Bureau.

Public health engineering minister Shah Farman defended the law saying the ruling PTI was making all-out efforts to check corruption in society.

“The people are well aware of the corrupt people and their modus operandi,” he said.

The minister said the new law would provide them with an opportunity to lay hand on corrupt people.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said the law was approved by the house’s select committee consisting of representatives of all parliamentary parties, after detailed discussion.

He said the opposition should be happy at the passage of that law as it could blow whistle on the ‘corruption’ of ministers and government officers.

The chief minister said the government had given an opportunity to its opponents to practically point out corrupt people instead of leveling baseless allegations only.

The house later passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Bill, 2016.

Parliamentary secretary on law Arif Yousaf also tabled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Ordinance, 2016.

The lawmakers from the treasury and opposition benches also criticised the PML-N workers for installing the party flag on the main gate of the provincial assembly during a recent protest demonstration.

The chair later adjourned the session until Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn September 20th, 2016

“Congratulations to KP govt for passing the Whistle-blower Act – one of the biggest steps to fighting cancer of corruption. Now people can earn monetary reward for exposing corruption where they work. This will be a major deterrent to corruption.” – Imran Khan