Protected Disclosures Bill
Submission of public comment to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
A new Protected Disclosures Bill is out for public comment by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Those supporting whistleblowers have been awaiting this Bill for a long time.
PARI’s submission welcomes the new Bill. We focus our attention on a new awards mechanism that has been introduced for whistle-blowers. PARI has an ongoing interest in the question of whether and how to introduce incentives into South Africa’s whistleblowing system. Our work in this regard was cited by the Zondo Commission, and the Commission has been an important influence on this Bill. We propose ways the awards mechanism can be strengthened to provide a better incentive for whistleblowing (with guardrails), in ways that do not overburden the system. This builds on our work in the area of whistleblowing against public procurement fraud – see our publication here, and a webinar here.
We also make comment in our submission on the location and security of a central database for whistleblower disclosures (i.e. whistleblower reports).
