What Is A Whistle Blower Hotline?A Whistle Blower Hotline is a telephone number that an individual can call to report a fraud against the government involving federal money. When you call the Whistle Blower Hotline, you don't have to identify yourself, as you can make an anonymous complaint if you wish. Nowadays, government agencies demand integrity. This is what they expect from their employees and customers. And recently, there has been a strong attention focused at the accountability and new compliance requirements, so it's important for government agencies to provide people with accessible and anonymous reporting tools. Despite the fact that we are living in the information age, not everyone has access to information and it's hard to capture information about internal activities at your organization that they aren't seeing themselves. Internal fraud, harassment, theft, and policy violations all have significant impact on your company, but employees may be too uncomfortable, unsure, or unwilling to discuss them in person. The procedure when connecting to a whistleblower hotline is the following. First you have to call one of the whistle blower hotline numbers and tell the operator that you want to report a potential violation. Then you will be connected to a specially trained personnel who will ask you a series of questions in order to obtain as much information about the situation as possible, so any investigation can proceed efficiently. As mentioned, you may remain complete anonymity. If you decide to identify yourself so that the government can contact you for additional information, the staff will make every effort to maintain your confidentiality as the investigation proceeds if you request confidentiality. Should the investigation determine a program rule violation has occurred, immediate action will occur, including but not limited to, adjusting or rescinding funding commitments and recovering program funds. There are different types of whistle blower hotlines. The Colonial Properties Trust (http://colonialprop.com/) has a hotline of its own available at 1-800-272-9179. The Company provides 24 hour access to a confidential, anonymous hotline (a toll-free telephone number to call) for reporting known or suspected auditing, accounting or other ethical violations. SilentWhistle from Allegiance.com is a reporting system that helps you build a strong ethical culture and adhere to regulatory compliance that is critical to organizations of all sizes and types. With both web and phone-based technology, this advanced suite of anonymous "hotline" and feedback systems provides an anonymous forum for employees, customers, and partners to give your organization suggestions, ask questions, and whistle-blow when needed. It's fair for a whistle blower to receive a reward for exposing corruption or discrimination in the workplace, making employers pay the price for their mistakes. Blowing the whistle is one of the means of regulations that guarantees better employement. |