Idris: Whistleblower Act to be implemented on Dec 15

The Whistleblower Protection Act 2010, formulated to curb corruption, will be implemented on December 15, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala.

He said the Act would help prevent people from engaging in corrupt activities as somebody would blow the whistle on them.

Idris (picture) said an announcement on this would be made on December 6.

“December 6 will be quite a historic moment for Malaysia in its fight against corruption.

“And then, we will put down on the modalities of the Act’s implementation which will take off on December 15,” he told Bernama here tonight.

He said the Act, which was passed by Parliament in May, was developed according to the best practices of the same Act in other countries such as the United Kingdom and United States.

“The experience in the US and Europe was that corruption began to decline (after the implementation of Whistleblower Act) because it is a big deterrent.

“What is important is that the public knows that the protection Act is there. We also have a witness protection Act too. Not only are whistleblowers protected so too witnesses.”

According to Idris, under the Act if anyone in the country finds he or she has evidence of someone who has committed a corrupt practice or act or fraudulent activity, the whistleblower can file a complaint against that individual.

“The whistleblower clearly will be protected in terms of confidentiality and the identity of the person will be kept completely intact by law,” he said.

Asked whether the whistleblower would be rewarded, he said there had been a proposal to reward whistleblowers but had yet to be discussed.

“We are only beginning with protection. Most countries just do this and do not reward. But we are looking into the possibility of having a reward mechanism,” he added.

When tabling Budget 2010 in Parliament in October last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that a Whistleblower Protection Act would be formulated to encourage informers expose corrupt practices and other misconduct.

Najib said the move would provide immunity to informers from civil or criminal charges. The formulation of the Whistleblower Act was among the measures taken in the implementation of the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) to eliminate corruption. — Bernama