CHRAJ swears-in committee to draft standard operating procedure for whistleblower protection

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), on Tuesday, inaugurated a seven-member committee, tasked to draft a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for whistleblower protection in Ghana.

The SOP, is expected to address challenges and weaknesses identified in the current systems for operationalizing whistleblowing and provide an efficient implementation of the Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720).

“The Whistleblower Protection and Reporting System is important for accelerating the impact of the Whistleblower Act. The new standardized SOP will ensure the law is simplified to the understanding of citizens and be a useful training or awareness campaign material,” Dr. Louise Portas Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. 

The whistleblower Act was passed in 2006 to improve the ability to fight corruption & other forms of unlawful conduct by providing support & protection to any person who discloses impropriety or exposes corrupt or other unlawful conduct.

But CHRAJ says it discovered that since the passage of the Act 16 years ago, less than 2000 whistleblower complaints have been received by key accountability institutions.

“This is attributed to insufficient education on the values and benefits of disclosing impropriety and reporting corruption, the lack of confidence in the procedures for investigation and mechanisms for protecting whistleblowers,” CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner in charge of Anti-Corruption, Mr. Richard Quayson said. 

The completion of the OSP is likely to address some of these challenges.

Members of the committee include Ms. Alice Chanayireh, Ms. Jacqueline Opoku, Ms. Mother Theresa Brew, Mr. Stephen Azantilow, Mr. Wisdom K. Xetor, Mr. David A. Adjei, and Mr. Elom Donald Bani.