Assure Independent Investigations

Member Article

An independent approach to resolving work place cover-ups

Typically when cover-ups in an organisation make the national headlines, it is associated with high profile corporate scandals. Due to the negative impact from public perception of the organisation and how it operates, investigations into the scandals tend to be played out in the media spotlight.

Two of this year’s most ‘famous’ scandals include the Hillsborough disaster with the real story of what happened 23 years ago and the subsequent cover-up by the police and the government being exposed through a damning report and the News of the World phone hacking scandal which was investigated through the Leveson inquiry and led to the closure of the paper.

However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, cover-ups concerning malpractice and rule-breaking happen on a daily basis, in all types of organisations.

It is important for heads of organisations to educate employees that it is acceptable to raise any genuine concerns relating to corruption or illegality issues and provide clear internal reporting channels. The person concerned has three options; to stay quiet, to blow the whistle internally or to blow the whistle outside to the authorities or media.

Time and time again employees admit they were aware of issues but feared speaking up or were not confident that their organisation would handle the issue appropriately. The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) 1998 aims to protect individuals in these circumstances without the fear of victimisation. This is commonly referred to as ‘whistleblowing’.

Whistleblowing is when employees raise a concern about a possible fraud, crime or danger that has a public interest aspect to it. The law that protect whistleblowers is for public interest, so people are encouraged to speak out if they find malpractice in an organisation. It is therefore important for an early warning system such as having a whistle blowing policy in place.

When issues of malpractice are identified, Assure acts independently from the organisation and offers a service that is efficient, fair and in accordance with the organisation’s procedures, legislation and good practice. Being independent to the organisation, their service is seen as unbiased and credible by the employer, employee and any other parties associated with the matter.

When an organisation is subject to an external audit or regulation sometimes managers are tempted to conduct their own internal investigations and then gloss over internal concerns and issues so that they can minimise the problems and even obtain better reviews or scores. As the comedian once said “it is how you tell it”. This is the weakness of internally based investigations.

Director of Assure, Steve Cave, explains: “We were asked to investigate a whistleblowing complaint. The grievance was against a manager who was allegedly not implementing procedures which was putting client safety at risk. However, the manager made a series of complaints against his Director regarding a reduction in staffing and training budgets during the last year which he believed to have directly contributed to the problems within the unit.

We started the investigation but soon afterwards the Director wrote to the manager saying that he considered that the complaints against him should go straight to a disciplinary hearing without the investigation. The Chairman & MD then asked us to enlarge our investigation to include the new allegations against the Director which drew us to interview other managers within the organisation.

We found that the original whistleblowing complaint was well founded. Client records were in a mess or very suspect, staff were not being properly trained and there was undoubtedly some risk to the clients. The manager and many of his supervisors seemed to be highly stressed. We found that the Director, who had been promoted internally from a management position, had personally investigated quite a number of issues and complaints over recent years. His reports were minimal with little or no supporting evidence or witness statements. It seemed to us that at the very best, investigations in what was a regulated organisation dealing with vulnerable people, were not being carried out competently. At worst there was a cover up regime in place and on either score the organisation was putting itself at serious risk. We tended to the view that the Director’s actions were strongly indicative of cover ups.

At our recommendation the investigation policy was changed. We trained key managers from other parts of the organisation to conduct investigations outside of their own functions, and more serious complaints had to be investigated by outside specialists. The organisation now has a transparent method of dealing with complaints from staff, clients etc. which it can demonstrate to the regulatory bodies.“

Len Burns, Co-Director adds “We understand that every case is different and aim to start an investigation within 24 hours of being contacted, providing peace of mind that it will be conducted comprehensively and professionally by trained specialists.”

For further information contact Assure Independent Investigations on 0191 236 5211, email info@assureinvestigations.com or visit www.assureinvestigations.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jen Dugdale .

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