Source: "Blic"
Several years ago when the world renowned audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers published the results of a survey carried out in 40 countries worldwide in over 5,000 institutions and companies which showed that in about 43% of cases corruption and frauds were disclosed owing to insiders, many people may have been surprised. But subsequent surveys also confirmed this or even higher contribution of insiders in the fight against corruption. Thus it is hard to imagine an efficient concept of the fight against corruption in the modern world if it, among other things, does not imply considerable contribution which insiders or "whistleblowers", as they are more often called in the world, give to disclosure of corruption and abuses.
Of course, a state which expects such or similar contribution from insiders must also have laws which would protect them against abuses, particularly from various forms of "responsibilities". Many states have passed such laws a long time ago. For example, the first such law in the USA was passed as early as in the 19th century and about fifty more were subsequently passed. Unfortunately, Serbia does not have any such law. But it has numerous examples of people who spoke out and disclosed corruption and after that were exposed to various, most often unpleasant forms of "revenge" because of "disclosure of secrets". For years, ever since I became the Commissioner for information, I have been advocating their legal protection. Unfortunately, although I have not been alone in that, it has not yielded any results so far. Current review of the Amending Law to the Law on Free Access to Information is a good opportunity to make the first important step in protection of insiders by adequate amendment. And what makes this opportunity even better is the fact that well articulated arrangement already exist in the amendment which the Ombudsman submitted.
It is important to seize the opportunity and finally start building a legal mechanism for protection of insiders. This is really important because of justice, equity and GRECO (Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe) recommendations, but in the first place for a reason which could not be more concrete - presence of corruption on a scale which is extremely worrying and calls for appropriate action using all means available.
