PSDPA

Over the past 11 years since 2002, federal whistleblower agencies have cost the taxpayer more than $35 million for very little return, mainly due to toothless laws and faulty administration.

During this time the annual costs have escalated, from about one million per year to more than eight million – for a system that has produced almost no results in spite of receiving hundreds of complaints from whistleblowers.

Executive Summary

• The departmental system for disclosure of wrongdoing is little used: each year less than one employee in a thousand makes a disclosure although 10% or more of employees have likely witnessed misconduct that they consider serious.¹
• Some large employers stand out as having ineffective implementation. For example, four departments,² between them employing 140,000 public servants, have yet to find a single case of wrongoing in four years. We estimate that these departments have spent more than $300 billion in that time, yet they have been unable to find a cent misused or misappropriated.
• Departments that uncover wrongdoing tend to be secretive about the details: the required published reports often contain little or no information beyond the fact that some type of misconduct was uncovered. In some cases we were unable to find the legally-required reports on departmental websites.
• With a few exceptions, where information is provided, the wrongdoing reported usually seems relatively minor and involves low-level employees.