A new law recently proposed in the Cayman Islands would protect whistleblowers who report acts of wrongdoing in the private and public sectors.
The Protected Disclosures Bill 2014 would establish a separate authority that whistleblowers can report to, thus encouraging those with knowledge of wrongdoing to come forward, the newspaper CayCompass reported.
The bill’s drafting was prompted by a report from the territory’s complaints commissioner, which asserted that in many cases civil servants didn’t come forward to report supervisors’ actions because they feared that they, and not the offender, would be punished, the newspaper reported.
After the complaints commissioner’s report, the islands’ Law Reform Commission performed its own review of existing legislation. The LRC found that while several laws already on the books protect whistleblowers, nowhere are the proper reporting procedures outlined in current law.
See the May 8, 2014 edition for full coverage.
{fcomment}