For Immediate Release
July 30, 2019
Washington, DC
Contact: Mark Greenblatt
Executive Director
(202)292-2603
INSPECTORS GENERAL ENHANCE RESOURCES FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS ON OVERSIGHT.GOV,
RELEASE NEW REPORT HIGHLIGHTING WHISTLEBLOWERS’ IMPACT
Today, on National Whistleblower Day, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) launched a new online tool and resource page for whistleblowers, at https://www.oversight.gov/Whistleblowers. CIGIE also released a new report to highlight whistleblowers’ impact. The specific resources released today include:
- Interactive hotline tool. By following a few simple prompts, users are directed to the appropriate Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel, or other entity to report wrongdoing or to file a retaliation complaint. CIGIE and OSC launched the tool during its BETA test to provide the public an opportunity to provide feedback before the tool is final.
- Resources for whistleblowers. To further guide individuals who want to report waste, fraud, abuse, or retaliation, the site provides specific information to individuals in various sectors, such as whistleblower protections for contractors and grantees, members of the military services, and intelligence community employees.
- Report on whistleblower impact. To illustrate the importance of individuals coming forward to report misconduct, CIGIE today released a new report, titled “Whistleblowing Works: How Inspectors General Respond to and Protect Whistleblowers.” From ensuring that veterans receive timely access to health care to protecting the integrity of our financial institutions, the OIG investigations, audits, and reviews highlighted in the CIGIE report were initiated or advanced because of a whistleblower disclosure. All of those OIG reports, along with examples of OIG efforts to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, are available on Oversight.gov.
CIGIE Chair and Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz will deliver remarks about these new resources today at 12:15 pm at a National Whistleblower Day event Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-106. View the program here. The event is open to the press and the National Whistleblower Center is requesting that reporters who wish to attend RSVP here. View the event livestream here.
CIGIE’s new whistleblower resource page is possible because of bipartisan support from the leadership of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Financial Services and General Government. In fiscal year 2019, the subcommittees provided CIGIE with $2 million to improve Oversight.gov as a good government and transparency tool. The whistleblower web page is the first of several planned enhancements, which will also include a tool to track IG vacancies across government and building a pilot database capable of showing open recommendations from all OIGs.
View the interactive hotline tool and resources for whistleblowers: https://www.oversight.gov/Whistleblowers.
Read the report, “Whistleblowing Works: How Inspectors General Respond to and Protect Whistleblowers”: https://www.oversight.gov/node/19657.
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