Whistleblowers Protection Amendment is Rejected

Parliament on Wednesday rejected the Opposition’s proposal that sought to include whistleblower protection provisions in the Audit Bill 2024.

The amendment to Clause 16, moved by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Premila Kumar, was defeated after debate on the floor.

Ms Kumar had proposed adding whistleblower provisions to protect civil servants who report wrongdoing to the Office of the Auditor-General.

“It is very difficult when you see things going wrong in an organisation and you cannot risk your job to report any fraudulent activity,” Ms Kumar said.

“It will help the people in protecting taxpayers’ money if we have that provision where any civil servant who sees anything wrong will be able to tip-off the Office of the Auditor-General.”

Opposition MP Alvick Maharaj supported the amendment, noting that civil servants currently fear victimisation when reporting wrongdoing.

“If we are looking at improving the system, if there is fraudulent case or something going on which should not be done at the Ministry level or any other Government agency, I think civil servants should be protected,” Mr Maharaj said.

Minister for Finance Biman Prasad opposed the amendment, arguing that whistleblower provisions should be handled through policy rather than legislation.

“The Auditor-General has the powers and the independence to make policy guidelines as to the way in which that office wants to communicate,” he said.

“I think it would be wrong to put a policy into the Act.”

Mr Prasad said the Audit Bill was developed with international best practices in mind, following advice from experts.

The Audit Bill 2024 defines the Auditor-General’s powers to conduct financial audits, performance audits, compliance audits and special investigations of public entities.

The Audit Bill – Bill No 17 of 2024 was passed after the second and third reading without any amendments.

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