Government Accountability Project Fans a Revolution in Whistleblower Protections for Corporate Employees

Fourteen years ago the giant companies Enron and World.com crashed and disappeared into the ether. In their wakes tens of thousands of individuals and their families lost their jobs or retirement investments or both. The ripple effect across the entire national economy certainly caused an unpleasant jolt but also provided an opportunity for reform. Out of hundreds and hundreds of employees who knew about the unsound and corrupt business practices at those companies, each company had only one whistleblower and those two—Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper—were ignored.

Congressional decision-makers then called on Government Accountability Project to help develop legislation that would encourage whistleblowers to speak out when they see such wrong-doing and protect them when they do. We were ready to act because we had been "crying in the wilderness" about the need for those reforms since we opened our doors in 1977. The laws passed and the two whistleblowers were named Time magazine's persons of the year for 2002.
 
Since that time, Congress has turned to Government Accountability Project repeatedly for similar expertise as it enacted laws covering most major enterprises, all federal government agencies, and every government contractor-nearly 100,000,000 workers from top to bottom and across both private and public sectors of the work force.
 
The enactment of laws to protect the truth tellers is a critical step in the right direction. The fair and just implementation of these laws is the next phase in the struggle for public accountability, consumer safeguards, and financial security for all.